Exodus
by OverlordMiles
Summary: Life in an average Alternian village is uprooted when terror strikes. Survivors are sent to an alien planet to survive, but what awaits them? Will they make it back home, or will they be torn apart by others or themselves? -Multiple ships. Not going to spoil them.
1. A problem

**BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.**

 _This is not a drill. This is not a drill. We are under attack by an unknown suspect. Please remain calm and evacuate to the nearest shelter._

Sollux groaned. "It's way too early for this crap..."

He hopped out of bed, threw his glasses on, wormed his hands through the arm-holes of a shirt, and ran down the stairs to Mituna's room.

"Mituna! Get up! It's an emergency! We need to leave NOW!"

While his half-awake brother got ready as fast as he could, Sollux grabbed his backpack. In it were some basic building tools, copper wire, his phone, a charger, and some solar panels. And some granola bars, just in case. After Mituna rushed out his room, the two evacuated 'calmly.'

More like they ran down the street screaming. The two non-athletic teens were panting like dogs on a day in the middle of the summer.

On the way to the nearest shelter, which was City Hall, they saw two female figures walking calmly down the road.

"Kanaya!" Sollux yelled.

After reaching Kanaya, he forced his hands onto his knees and breathed heavily a few times before continuing to talk.

"Why aren't you running? We're under attack!"

Kanaya shrugged. "We're not in immediate danger."

Sollux looked up in the sky. Far in the distance, a speck of chrome was shooting bright beams of red light. It was, if he had to estimate, at least 5 miles away.

"Well, I guess, but it could come here at any second."

"What are the odds of that?"

Sollux sighed. "I guess so."

His panic slowly subsided. Something about being with Kanaya seemed to just calm you down. She had somewhat of an aura around her, since she was so sedate herself.

Mituna and Porrim chatted in the back while Kanaya and Sollux walked towards City Hall. When they got there, the large building of quartz glistened above them. Large pillars held up the massive weight of the slanted roof. They climbed up the stairs and into the room, where a hundred or so trolls were already there. The four sat against the smooth wall, whispering to each other.

Kanaya put her chin on her hand and thought for a second.

"Who could be attacking us?"

Sollux tried to give her a valid answer. "Is it a cherub...?"

Kanaya shook her head. "It can't be. They don't have that advanced technology."

Sollux's eyes widened. "Are there any groups of trolls against us?"

Kanaya thought. "Well, we're only in a village. While we don't have any enemies, the Condesce, a group of troll pirate run by Mindfang or the Orphaner, or perhaps even the Grand Highblood himself could be attacking. They all can never seem to get enough power..."

Sollux sighed. "A leader content with his power will come when Tavros walks again."

Kanaya chuckled. "You never know. Equius said he was working on some robotic legs."

Just then, Horrus, the town's main messenger, rode in by horse. "They're coming this way! Equius, how many evacuation ships do we have at the ready?"

Equius ran through a pair of glass, automatic doors. "We only have 3. One can hold 5, one 4, and the other only 2. That's 11 of us. We can only take 11."

Porrim stood up and yelled, "Save the children!"

Both of the Zahhaks thought.

Equius broke the silence with, "That's our best bet. If we want anyone to survive and hope to reclaim the rights to this town, it's the ones who have the most time to grow and potential.

Horrus nodded solemnly. "I guess so."

There were 12 trolls who were pushed to the front of the group, including Sollux and Kanaya. Equius randomly picked who went into what ship, since one of them would have to be left behind.

"Ship A!" he yelled.

"Tavros Nitram! Gamzee Makara! Terezi Pyrope! Karkat Vantas! Aradia Medigo!"

The 5 trolls whose names were called went over to the largest ship. Anxiety welled up in Sollux's stomach. What if he didn't make it? He didn't want his life to end so soon.

"Ship B!" he yelled.

"Vriska Serket! Eridan Ampora!"

The two gave each other stern looks. Maybe that wasn't the best pairing, but no one had time to revise it.

"Ship C! Final Ship!"

This was it. There were 3 spots left.

"Kanaya Maryam..."

Sollux was being flooded with anxiety. Kanaya strolled up to the ship, and Sollux started sweating.

"Nepeta Leijon..."

 _Come on, come on, come on!_

"Hey! That's me! Equius Zahhak."

 _Well, there's one spot. I guess I'm screwed._

"Sollux Captor!"

With a huge sigh of relief, he sat in between Equius and Kanaya. Eridan waved to Feferi as the doors to the ships locked up. Equius pushed a button next to a radio system, and started talking into a microphone. The radio waves were sent to the other ships.

"Okay everybody, get ready for liftoff. These ships are on autopilot. Should some obstacle or adversity behold us, you can push both the buttons on top of the steering module and manual pilot will be engaged. Everyone ready?"

After several words of agreement were received, Equius started making the countdown.

 _5..._

 _4..._

 _3..._

 _2..._

 _1..._

LIFTOFF!

The three ships blasted off, leaving a trail of fire behind them. After escalating a few hundred feet, the ships evened out and started aiming for the atmosphere. They started to maintain a steady pace. Equius began to speak on the radio system again.

"Well folks, I do believe we have mad-"

A laser flew right in front of the window. Equius mashed his fingers on the manual drive buttons and pulled back.

"I jinxed it, didn't I?"

 **Thank you for reading! Since it is summer, I will be frequently bored and will create updates as much as possible. If you enjoyed the first chapter make sure to follow or favorite, and please drop me a review! They help keep me motivated and keep updates up. Also, I can fix any minor issues I may have created.**


	2. An escape

**Thank you for following, OMEGA ZX 420!**

Just as the group thought they were home-free, a glowing red laser zoomed across the sky. The ship would have hit it if Equius hadn't yanked the steering module back, nearly breaking it.

"Nepeta, man the wheel for a second, please."

Nepeta leaned over and started to move the ship sporadically, making sure they couldn't get a hit off. Lasers shot, but Nepeta's ship jukes made the vehicle dodge every one of them. The invaders' shots were getting closer and closer to contact. Equius had to give protocol to the other ships.

"Hello passengers. It seems we are under enemy attack. Stay calm and search the main dashboard for a large lever with the motion sickness warning under it. After you find it, pull the lever. It will engage hyperdrive and safely get us to another planet, considering they don't have hyperdrive too. Has everyone found it?"

Equius got a yes from the 5-person ship, and an 'I think so' from Eridan in the other ship.

"Then pull it, and I hope you're ready. This is going to be pretty rough."

The largest ship and the medium ship both were enveloped in a light blue light, then forced forward, leaving a trail of blue plasma behind them. Equius remained in his normal position, while Kanaya sat back, completely calm. Nepeta was leaning against Equius in fear, while Sollux was cowering back in his seat. After a few minutes of travel, the hyperdrive ran out of energy and started to slow down.

"Thanks, Nepeta, for manning the ship earlier," Equius told her.

"No purroblem."

* * *

Back at the original site, Eridan had not found the hyperdrive lever. Apparently, his ship was equipped with a turret, however it was not a laser one like the opposition possessed. Just an old fashioned mechanical turret. Either way, it still dealt damage. Vriska and Eridan fought over the lever, cursing at each other. Eridan argued he was a highblood, while Vriska argued that he had no skill in warfare whatsoever. Eridan scowled at her and reached under her arms to steer the ship. Eridan maneuvered them above the ship, while Vriska fired at will. Shot after shot rained down on the bulletproof glass of the ship, bouncing fruitlessly into space. Finally, when they thought the cause was hopeless, the ship started angling up towards them. Several shots angled their way into the glass, created cracks in the window. The two sealed the deal by breaking the window, then Eridan retreated the ship.

"Here it is, found the hyperdrive lever," Vriska stated triumphantly.

"I'll hit it," Eridan said.

"No, I will," Vriska retorted.

The two fought over the lever until they both realized how stupid they were being and pulled it together.

The ship zoomed over to where the others were. Vriska put her hands up while Eridan screamed. Finally, they saw the others. Eridan braked the ship next to the others.

"Eridan and Vriska, what took you so long?" Equius queried.

"We just, uh-" Eridan was about to say, but was interrupted by Vriska.

"TORE A HOLE IN THE GODDAMN SHIP!" she yelled.

"Good job, but that might not have been the best idea."

"Why not?" Vriska asked.

"Whoever owned that ship is going to be out for our heads."

"Oh."

"Whatever, we can prepare for that later. Depending on who it is, we have anywhere from a month to a few years. We should attempt to colonize this planet in the meantime."

"Will do," Karkat stated from the microphone in his ship.

"The final obstacle is here, landing. It can be a very delicate process. Too fast, and your ship explodes on you. Too slow, and you run out of fuel and you plummet to your death. Try to maintain a falling speed around 10 miles per hour. Any questions?"

"Are we going to die?" Terezi chuckled.

"I hope not. Let's go. If you need help, follow us."

Equius made the bottom of the ship face the earth, then let gravity carry the ship. The others followed suit. Every few seconds or so, Equius let a hiss of propulsion slow them, then fall to continue the process. Their ship slowly descended until it landed on the ground with a small THUNK. Equius opened the doors, and the four enjoyed the pleasure of walking again, after not walking for several hours of spaceship flight. The largest ship hit the ground harder than wanted, and started to lean to one side. The ship started to fall over, while Karkat struggled to get the doors open. Everyone jumped out, or so they thought. Karkat noticed Gamzee still in there, stoned as can be. He dove back in, unclipped his seatbelt, grabbed him around the waist, and dove out and landed on top of him. Karkat waited for an explosion, but none came. Eventually he got off Gamzee, dusted himself off, and got up to several pairs of staring eyes.

"What?"

* * *

While everyone else was on the ground, Eridan and Vriska were behind again, in space. Vriska was slowly descending them to the unknown planet, cautious to follow Equius' instructions and not die a fiery death. Every seconds or so, she pushed the ship up a little bit. They fell through the atmosphere, bounding like an antelope on the Great Plains.

"You're going too slow. Let me see that."

"No, you're going to screw everything up. Look, we're going 8 mph. Equius said around 10, better to play it safe."

"I'm getting bored."

As Vriska went down to push the button to boost up again, Eridan restrained her.

"What are you doing?"

"Let us fall a bit. We have a long way."

"God damn it Eridan you're going to get us killed."

"No I won't, trust me. I know what I'm doing."

"Suuuure you do."

Both took away their attention from the brakes. Before they knew it, they were plummeting at 40 mph.

"Damn it Eridan!"

"It isn't my fault you took your attention from the brakes."

"You started this whole argument you freaking fish stick!"

"Oh my god, why do you have to be such a beach?"

"Me? Says the douche. I'm out of here."

Vriska opened the door and jumped out and entered freefall. _I'd rather die this way than in a ball of fire with that idiot._ She spread her limbs out in a futile attempt to survive. It slowed her down a little bit, but she still knew she was going to reach her impending doom. Tears filled her eyes of last-second regrets. She wished she never made Terezi blind. She wish she never killed anyone. She wished she had never broken both of Tavros' legs. Tears streamed down. She closed her eyes and waited for impact with the ground. _Stop crying Vriska, it'll be quick and painless._

She made impact, and her eyes closed forever.

* * *

Meanwhile, Eridan was freaking out on the spaceship. He mashed random buttons and tried to stop the ship's trajectory, but nothing worked. He even tried firing the turret. The velocity of the ship increased downward, nearing 100 miles per hour. Sweat beaded down his whole body as he pushed himself with as much force as possible. If he were to make it out alive, it would take a lot of effort and a well-though out plan. However, he did not have a well-thought out plan. As he neared the surface, he closed his eyes and prepared for impact. The ship hit the ground, exploding in a massive plume of fire and gas. Eridan's body burned up and was covered in the molten metal of the spaceship itself, never to escape or see light again.

* * *

Karkat was orienting the group on their plan when a strong force knocked them all off their feet. They looked over to see a huge ball of fire. After the heat died down, the 9 trolls went over to investigate. There laid the small spaceship. A moment of silence ensued. It was then broken.

"Eridan and Vriska... They're dead..." Karkat sighed, looking at the burning mess of chrome.

"My spaceship... It's dead..." Equius sighed, looking at the burning mess of chrome.


	3. A plan

After the mourning for Eridan and Vriska, Equius walked over to the spaceship to see what he could salvage. Sadly, that was a minimal amount. Some food, a few bandages, and some bungee cord. Everything else was stuck in the molten mess of steel and chrome.

"OKAY NOOKSNIFFERS, GRIEVING TIME IS OVER. IF WE EVER WANT TO SURVIVE HERE, WE NEED TO GET SOME SERIOUS SURVIVAL INTO ORDER. AFTER WE HAVE A SHELTER SET UP, WE CAN MAKE A FUNERAL OR WHATEVER THE CRAP YOU GUYS WANT. THAT FINE FOR NOW?"

A few faint murmurs of agreement were heard throughout the group, and some head nods.

"GOOD ENOUGH. EVEN I, KARKAT VANTAS, CAN'T HANDLE EVERYTHING ON MY OWN. I'LL ADMIT IT. THAT'S WHY I'M ASSIGNING SOME CO-LEADERS. OF COURSE, I STILL CAN OVERRULE THEM AS I CHOOSE, HOWEVER THEIR DECISION IS GREATER THAN YOURS. FIRST OFF, WE NEED SHELTER. WE DON'T KNOW HOW COLD OR HOT IT'LL GET, AND WE HAVE TO PREPARE. SINCE EQUIUS IS STRONG AND CAN LIFT MATERIALS, HE'S IN CHARGE OF THAT."

Equius nodded and started to examine the surroundings for materials.

"NEXT WE NEED SOME FOOD AND WATER. SINCE WE MIGHT NOT GET THAT MUCH FOOD, WE NEED IT AS FATTY AS POSSIBLE. NEPETA, YOU'RE IN CHARGE OF GETTING MEAT."

"Purrfect!" Nepeta exclaimed, throwing a fist (paw?) up in the air.

"ALSO, WE NEED TO LEAD AN INVESTIGATION FOR WATER. HOWEVER, I WAS INFORMED WE HAVE A TANK THAT CAN LAST US A FEW DAYS."

Karkat whispered, "Thanks," to Equius quickly.

"HOWEVER, AFTER THAT, WE WILL NEED A RELIABLE WATER SOURCE. WHETHER IT'S A POND, LAKE, RIVER, STREAM OR WHEREVER THE CRAP YOU CAN GET WATER. I THINK I'LL PUT ARADIA ON THAT BECAUSE SHE'S AN ARCHAEOLOGIST AND SHE DOES A LOT OF WILDERNESS SEARCHES. UNLESS SOMEONE HAS A BETTER IDEA?"

Nothing.

"GOOD. NOW GET TO WORK!"

And with that, the trolls started dividing into groups. Kanaya went with Nepeta to hunt. The others went to help Equius build a temporary shelter. Later, Terezi would help Aradia find water, using her superior sense of smell and taste. Tavros later decided to join them because it was probably the only job he could do in his wheelchair.

* * *

Kanaya and Nepeta were walking through the forest. Well, Kanaya was. Nepeta was crawling, almost as if she was already stalking her prey. Kanaya watched the bushes for movement, however Nepeta would probably be the one to sense it first.

Nepeta's ears perked up. Kanaya dipped down a little bit and reached for her chainsaw. Nepeta stared and her and slowly shook her head, so Kanaya settled with a curved dagger, since it didn't require electricity and it was much more quiet and agile. Nepeta slowly approached, Kanaya following. The two walked out into a clearing where Nepeta heard whatever they were hunting for. In front of them stood a large black creature with massive paws, a bulky body, and a head with small ears and a stub of a snout. It stared with its two jet black eyes and started to charge at them.

Kanaya ran off to the side while Nepeta waited. As the beast was about to hit her, she jumped and twisted, holding her claws to the side. They raked down the beast's flesh, leaving six streaks of pierced flesh. As Nepeta jumped for another attack, the black creature forcefully swiped its paw. Nepeta was launched back into a tree, and she tumbled to the ground and laid there.

Kanaya was furious. Anger boiled inside her. She jumped up and, quite like lightning, slashed twice across the beast's underbelly. She slid under the monstrosity, and disobeyed what Nepeta told her. She whipped out her chainsaw, and pulled the string a few times. Her eyebrows pulled down even further, her eyes filled with wrath. She launched herself forward, swinging the chainsaw horizontally. As she landed, she stumbled and landed on the ground. Behind her, the beast's head had been chopped clean off. Scars littered its pelt, barely oozing whatever fluids the creature had left.

Both of the two laid on the ground for a bit, staring at the blue sky and treetops. Kanaya then pushed herself up, putting her chainsaw back in its straps on her back. She helped Nepeta get up, and put her arm around her own shoulder. With the other hand, she took the beast's head and handed it to Nepeta. She put her hand on the beast's pelt, and pulled it over her other shoulder. And with that, the two traversed the land back to camp.

* * *

Equius was lugging logs of a freshly cut tree into a hash formation. He was using the logs to make a structure that could house the twelve of them, plus their cargo and other materials. As the sun started to set, two figures were seen in the distance. The figures approached slowly. Soon, it was determined they were Nepeta and Kanaya. Karkat ran up to them.

"WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU HUNT SOMETHING THAT BIG? YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS!"

Kanaya shrugged. "I followed her. The only thing I did was chop the beast's head off."

Tears started falling down Nepeta's cheek. "I don't know..." she sniffed.

"I guess I thought I could take it... But it managed to swipe at me before I could react. I'm sorry."

Karkat sighed. "It's fine, just don't do anything ridiculous again, okay? We can't lose another member. We couldn't take Feferi, and Eridan and Vriska got killed in a faulty landing procedure. It's just the nine of us. If we ever want to go back, we need as many people as possible."

Nepeta wiped some tears off her face. "Okay..."

Karkat then helped them lug the beast into camp. The sun was already setting, night rapidly approaching. The temperature had already dropped a few degrees. Eventually, some of the group started shivering.

"OKAY EVERYONE, MEET OVER HERE!" Karkat yelled.

The eight others assembled before him. Karkat did a small head count, then continued with the issue at hand.

"WE HAVE A PROBLEM. IT'S COLD. IT'S DARK. DOES ANYONE HAVE A SOLUTION?"

Sollux raised his hand.

"YES, BEEBRAIN?"

"Wow, really good insult. Have to give you credit for that."

Karkat sighed. "Whatever, just continue."

"We could set up some heat lam-"

"NOT A CHANCE. LOOK WHERE WE ARE, CAPTOR. SEE ANY HEAT LAMPS ANYWHERE?"

Sollux shook his head.

"THOUGHT SO. ANY OTHER SOLUTIONS?"

Equius rose his hand.

"YES, ZAHHAK?"

"Perhaps if we had a fire, it could provide both. Plus it's more reasonable. I have some matches, but we need something flammable to get logs burning. There's no tinder anywhere."

"WOW! A VALID IDEA! THANKS EQUIUS!" Karkat yelled, looking at Sollux. He shrugged.

Karkat looked at the group. It looked... Smaller than before.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...

"GOD DAMN IT GAMZEE WHERE'D YOU GO?"

The group looked over to see the purple-blooded clown over by a circle of rocks. He dropped some logs in and...poured some supor slime over them?

"Ay y'all motherf***ers I think I found the solution to our problem." Gamzee chuckled.

Equius looked confused, but decided that the highblood might have a smart idea for once.

"Equius get me some of those miracle sticks."

"What are 'miracle sticks'?" Equius asked.

"The fire things. Get me one."

Equius took out a match and struck it until it burned. He handed it to Gamzee carefully.

Gamzee tossed it into the fire. The sight after made everyone stare in awe. The slime had nearly exploded, and they had a roaring fire in front of them.

"Aww yeah, thank the messiahs. It's a god damn miracle."

Everyone then gathered around it, while Nepeta skinned the beast. Terezi donated her cane, and she and Nepeta held the creature's meat over the fire, turning it occasionally. Tavros wheeled over and looked at the head.

"Uhhh, I think I've, uh, seen something like that before."

Kanaya queried as to what the beast was.

"It's called, uh, a bear. I think."

Just then, the two finished cooking the bear. They divided it into nine large chunks and handed it out. The meat was very fatty, with a lot of gristle. It had a tough texture, but the taste wasn't terrible. After they finished eating, the nine trolls laid around the campfire. Everyone had fallen asleep except for Kanaya and Sollux.

"How long do you think we'll survive?" Sollux asked Kanaya.

Kanaya thought for a second. "It depends on our actions. If we find water, quite a while. If not, a week."

Kanaya then slowly fell asleep, while Sollux stared at the fire.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "I still have my phone!"

Sollux reached through his bag and pulled it up. On it were several messages from Feferi.

 _How are you doing?_

 _Do you even have your phone with you?_

 _If you do, then maybe we can talk until the battery runs out._

 _Anyway, we're in hiding under town hall. There's a secret chamber that not many people knew about._

 _We can't stay in here for much longer._

 _We don't know if the Condesce is still here or not._

 _Text me back if you can!_

Sollux texted Feferi back.

 _Yeah, I have my phone._

 _I brought some materials, maybe I can build a solar charger or something and be an information beacon._

 _Vriska and Eridan died in a landing accident._

 _Even I feel kind of bad that Eridan's gone, even though he's a total douche._

 _Was, sorry._

 _Well, I wish you luck! Be safe!_

Sollux sighed and shut down his phone. _I better get some sleep._


	4. A mission

**Thanks a lot to Boybz for following, favoriting, following me, and favoriting me! I was in the car when I got the notifications, and I started smiling. My dad probably thought I was being weird.**

Around 3 in the morning, Nepeta woke up. Her chest ached from previous events, but her mobility seemed relatively unharmed. She quietly got up and snuck into the forest, making as little noise as possible. The undergrowth hardly rustled behind her.

Nepeta turned to camp an hour or two later, proud of her catches. She had caught three small animals and a medium sized one. Two of them had long ears, a cotton-ball of a tail, and had a weird movement style. They hopped around, which Nepeta thought was interesting. The other one was smaller, and it had a long, bushy tail. It ran and climbed up a tree before Nepeta knocked it down and made the killing blow. The other one had a tail about the size of the other, but had a different body size. It had sharp teeth and claws, and was a minor threat before Nepeta outmaneuvered it.

As she lugged the animals into camp, the first thing she noticed was a shivering Karkat. She took the larger creature's pelt and lugged it over him. Upon feeling the warmth of the fur from the animal, he seemed to ease down and steady breathing followed.

 _Karkat's cuter when he's asleep, because then he's not grouchy..._

Nepeta's cheeks turned red after she realized what she had just thought. She had been flushed for Karkat for a while, but she was too scared to ever confess.

She hastily walked away, setting the smaller animals' corpses by the fire. She proceeded to skin them, humming an old tune to herself.

 _Far over the misty mountains cold..._

 _To dungeons deep and caverns old..._

 _We must away ere break of day..._

 _To seek the pale enchanted gold._

Nepeta remembered being back at home, reading about troll Gandalf and troll Bilbo as they went on their magical adventures.

This wasn't home though, and she needed to focus. She couldn't be the child she once was. _For Karkat._

She blushed again. _For survival._

She sighed and finished skinning the animal. She then proceeded to look for some logs.

"AAAAAAAAHAHHHHHHH GOD JEGUS PLEASE HELP ME!"

Nepeta jerked her head as she heard the not-so-masculine scream.

She looked to see Karkat cowering from the corpse. Nepeta ran over and flipped the beast over to reveal her clawmarks, and how the organs were ripped.

Karkat felt woozy at the sight but got up. So did everyone else, whose sleep had been interrupted by the creature. Whispers shot around.

Laughter then broke out.

"HEY! STOP IT! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW IT WAS DEAD?"

After the laughter broke, the fire was re-kindled and the small beasts cooked. The meat was spread around.

Tavros shrugged. "This rabbit ain't bad."

Everyone else took notice that the animal was called a rabbit.

"Tavros, what are the other animals?" Kanaya asked.

Tavros put down his meat for a second. "The small one's a squirrel. The big one's a wolf. While I was in my hive on Alternia, I had a lot of free time, so I watched National Geographic."

After the meal, Karkat went back to speak.

"OKAY, IT'S ABOUT TIME WE START SEARCHING FOR WATER. ARADIA, TAVROS, AND TEREZI, GO WHEREVER YOU MIGHT FIND SOME. I WISH YOU LUCK."

The three walked, or wheeled, out of camp.

"FOR THE REST OF US, LET'S SEE IF WE CAN FINISH THE SHELTER. WE'VE GOT A DECENT PERIMETER, BUT WE NEED TO BUILD THE WALLS TODAY. TOMORROW, WE SHOULD FINISH THE ROOF THEN CUSTOMIZE THE PLACE. SOUND LIKE A GOOD PLAN?"

Murmurs of agreement and some head nods.

"OKAY THEN, LET'S GET TO WORK."

The trolls back at camp started knocking down trees, while Equius stacked them into place.

* * *

Tavros, Aradia, and Terezi were on the quest for an aquatic body. The 'Dream Team' had one blind, one cripple, and one archaeologist.

However, the blind could smell, the cripple had nature knowledge, and the archaeologist had a somewhat useful set of skills for this situation.

The group continued out in a straight line, careful to not get lost. The group walked on and on, over hills, down dips, and around fallen trees. The group started growing weary, tired of the continuous hiking. Aradia opened her mouth to propose to walk back when Terezi took a big sniff of the air.

"Find anything?" Tavros asked.

Terezi walked to the right a bit, paused, then sniffed again. She pointed.

Aradia made an arrow in the ground with a large stick she found nearby, and the group went in that direction. They walked hastily and found a clearing. In front of them was a lake, with water stretching miles out in every direction. Terezi bent down and had a taste of it. The others cupped their hands and also had a sample of the the fresh water. It was cold as heck, but it was delicious. Completely unlike the water back on Alternia. They sat down and took a break, talking and laughing. They were excited to bring the rest of the group to the area to share the same experience. In the middle of the lake laid an island, decent sized, but not too big. As Aradia pointed it out, Tavros noticed something weird. Something that didn't look natural.

Small waves from wind lapped over what looked like a corpse.

Tavros squinted to look forward. As soon as he noticed what he saw, he jumped into the water, splashing the others.

"HEY!" Terezi yelled as the freezing water hit her.

Tavros swam faster than he had ever swam before. He tried his best to ignore the frigid liquid as he sailed through the water like a torpedo on target. His body got increasingly colder, but he clenched his teeth and did his best to suck it up. His arms started getting tired, his breath slowly slipping away.

Finally, he set his feet on the bottom of the lake and waded to the island. He picked up the body to see it still had some life in it, but however much was still in there was going to diminish soon. After taking a few breaths, he grabbed the body with one hand and desperately swam with the other. He flailed, slowly reaching the shore. The cold had nearly overcome him, and his body screamed for him to take a rest, but the person's life was on the line and he couldn't possibly put his own welfare before someone else's. With a few final strokes, he reached land and laid on the shore, breathing heavily.

Aradia picked up the body and Terezi hoisted Tavros onto his wheelchair. Terezi ran while pushing the wheelchair, and Aradia sprinted while carrying the nearly-deceased figure. When they reached the turn, Aradia yelled to Terezi and she abruptly turned the wheelchair, and it nearly capsized. She forced it down and continued back to camp on the line. Sweat deluged down their faces, but the willpower of saving a life made everything else seem pointless. After several minutes of full-out sprinting, they reached the camp, where they noticed a nearly-finished structure and several surprised faces. Aradia ran inside the building and set the body down on the bear pelt from the other day. Nepeta handed Tavros the wolf pelt, and he graciously wrapped it around his shivering figure and attempted to catch his breath.

Karkat walked up to the pelt, and when he saw who it was, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Vriska is... alive?"


	5. A realization

**This chapter took longer to put out because I put extra effort into it. Enjoy, my two followers, and any random people browsing Homestuck fanfiction!**

The sun started to set as a supor fire was started again, illuminating the area and providing warmth within a certain proximity. The wolf was also cooking, providing the smell of food for all to savor. Although it wasn't amazing, the smell was satisfactory considering the trolls had stopped eating lunch for the purpose of rationing food supplies. By the time it was dark and the sky was a darkish blue, everyone was quietly munching on the foreign meat. After the fire started to die down, the trolls gradually congregated to the structure they had created. There was not a roof, but it was still better than nothing. All the trolls laid down except for Kanaya who was watching over Vriska and Tavros who was staring into the ebbing flames of the fire.

After a while, Kanaya noticed some movement coming from the figure under the bear pelt. She walked over to see a barely-awake Vriska.

"Good evening Miss Serket, how are you feeling?"

"Like I've been tossed halfway around the world into a brick wall."

"That would quite accurately describe your situation."

"Oww..." Vriska said, clutching her torso, where there was a huge bruise.

"Do you remember anything of what happened?"

"Well, I was in a ship with the king of douches himself, Eridan. I was following Equius' landing procedure and then Eridan complained we were going too slow."

Kanaya chuckled. _Sounds about right._

"He tried to manage the landing, and we got into a fight with it, and I decided I'd rather die alone than with that fishbrain. So I opened the hatch and jumped out of the damn thing. And then, at that moment, I started falling and my chest started hurting."

"Were you exposed to anything beforehand?"

"No. It was a weird feeling I had never felt before. As I was falling, I realized I wasn't going to live."

Kanaya burst into laughter.

"That's remorse, Vriska."

"What the hell is a remorse?"

"It's guilt. You were guilty because you made Tavros lose his legs and made Terezi blind!"

Vriska stared into space.

"I...I guess you're right."

"You know, this is the closest you've been to an actual friend. I think this is a step in the right direction."

"Gogdammit Kanaya, I'd punch you in the jaw if I could."

Kanaya dramatically threw her arm up. "I can see it now..."

"Please no..."

"Vriska, traveling the world, being a role model for young wrigglers everywhere..."

"Stop..."

"Donating her time and Boondollars to supporting the less fortunate..."

"Not a chance."

"Promoting equality and happiness through all of Alternia..."

Vriska chuckled. "That's never going to happen."

"What's this? A sign of positive amusement from Vriska? Wow, it's almost here!"

Vriska could hardly hold in her laughter. "I guess you do have a point though. A near-death experience does change things. Maybe I should...What do you call it?"

Kanaya facepalmed in good spirits. "Apologize. Say you're sorry."

Vriska sighed. "Yeah, maybe I should. It would really suck to lose use of your eyes or legs. I lost an arm, but I still had another one."

Kanaya smiled. "Imagine how shocked they'll be to hear you're sorry."

Vriska returned the action. "They'll never believe it."

"Yeah, get some sleep though. Even if you did land it water, it wasn't perfect, and you got pretty bruised up. Try to land like a pencil next time."

Vriska nodded weakly. "Before you go, one last thing."

Kanaya turned her head. "What is it?"

"Who saved me?"

Kanaya paused for a second.

"Tavros."

And with that, she walked away, leaving Vriska stunned.

* * *

In the morning, Nepeta had come back into camp with two wolves and a squirrel. She dropped them in front of Karkat and tapped him on the head. He slowly woke up to see the dead animals. He jumped this time, but calmed down when he saw they were fake.

"I tried to get the larger animals for their pelts. If we get enough, we can use them as blankets."

Karkat nodded. "Good thinking. If you keep it up, we can get blankets for the nine of us."

Nepeta pointed towards the sleeping figure of Vriska on the bear pelt. "Ten."

"Oh right. It's good to know we're not all dead yet."

Nepeta chuckled and went to skinning the squirrel and wolf. Karkat got off the cold ground and collected some logs for the fire, putting them in the usual spot, which was covered in ash and dust. He woke up Gamzee and asked if he could start the fire.

"Sure Karbro. Let the messiahs watch down upon us as we create another miracle."

Karkat thanked him and sat next to the fire on the cold ground, but it wasn't so bad because the heat of the fire slowly climbed over to him. After a while, he felt more awake. The sun had risen and slowly trolls started waking up. After a while, everyone was awake and Nepeta was chopping the meat to distribute. Everyone got a hunk of it, and a shivering Vriska was brought some meat by Kanaya.

"I don't even know why I'm so cold. I'm under a freaking bear pelt and I'm still shivering..."

Kanaya thought for a second then replied. "I remember hearing of a common Earth sickness known as nasopharyngitis. It makes you feel feverish, or hot or cold. It is also associated with nasal congestion and pharynxial irritation."

Vriska coughed and asked, "Can you speak Alternian please?"

"It makes your nose clogged and gives you an itchy throat."

"Ah, thanks." She said, wiping her nose with her arm.

"Let me see if I can get you some tissues."

Kanaya searched the two remaining ships until she miraculously found a box of tissues and gave them to Vriska. She sneezed into one, disgusted by the cerulean substance that laid before her. After Kanaya left, she finished eating her chunk of meat and tried to fall asleep again.

* * *

Karkat had rounded up the eight other healthy trolls and talked about plans for the day. They needed to put a roof on their temporary hive and replenish their water supplies. The group, with everyone working together, managed to make a roof and lay it over the structure in only a few hours. The group then scavenged through the spaceships to find supplies to put into the hive. There were several rugs, a hammock, and a lantern. The rugs were put under the sleeping space, a lantern hung on the corner, and the hammock hoisted up in the storage room. Vriska was lifted on top of it, and the bear pelt placed on top of her.

"Augh, my back. It feels so much better now...

And then, for the rest of the day, the group brought water containers and went down to the lake to fill up. Equius brought the huge tank of water, and the rest brought water bottles or objects of the same size.

However, Vriska was sound asleep at the structure on the new hammock.

 _Vriska spawned more and more enemies for Tavros to overcome. If Tavros' character were to be helpful later on, he would need some extra grinding experience. And the best way to do that was obviously to give him more enemies. Every time three beasts were spawned, Tavros killed one. "Come on Tavros, step it up!"_

 _Tavros was not having the best time at this._

 _Stab, hack, and slash he may, but he didn't have confidence he could fight through the horde Vriska was spawning._

 _"Uhhh, can you stop spawning? I don't think I can handle this much..."_

 _"Yes you can! Just do it!"_

 _"Vriska, uhhh, I'm serious..."_

 _"Come on Tavros, step it up! If you can kill all these enemies, I'll never call you a wimp again."_

 _Knowing Vriska, she'd come up with some other nickname just as bad. Her encouragement was not helping, even distracting him, from this unbeatable mass of opposition. Tavros fought as hard as he could, but he knew he couldn't hold for much longer. Tavros glanced back to see a cliff with a large drop that looked significantly larger due to his current state of fear. Tavros fought back with one final burst of strength, but was eventually driven to the cliff and surrounded. He couldn't sneak off to the sides or retreat back any further, so he desperately jumped into the crowd and struggled to reach the other side._

 _Confused, the enemies looked around until they saw him, and they pushed him out of the group next to the cliff in his recent position. He pushed, the chance of survival lower and lower. Eventually, he was too overwhelmed, and his foot slipped._

 _He performed several flips in midair before landing on his feet, shattering his angles. He yelled out in a sickening tone. Several trolls ran out, Gamzee the fastest. He looked over the cliff to see a sight that made him almost go on a murderous spree. Tavros was sprawled out on the bottom of the cliff, his legs completely bent backwards, shattered bone poking out of his legs, or what used to be his legs. His eyes were closed, quite possibly forever. Gamzee hopped down the cliff face until he reached the now-crippled troll, picking him up bridal style and hopping back up. He looked at Vriska with eyes of malice, anger, and pure fury. He would have cleaved her head off had the other trolls not restrained him._

 _"The next time you hurt my moirail, I will personally rip your head off and throw it into the deepest cracks of hell I can find. And trust me, I never break a promise."_

 _Gamzee flipped Vriska off and the group took care of Tavros while Vriska despawned the LARP enemies. She sighed and thought to herself. 'He almost got it. I guess he is just still a wimp then.'_

* * *

Equius ran into camp first, setting the massive barrel down to its previous location. The rest of the group followed, Tavros and Terezi being last because of their disabilities. Tavros was trying to adjust to his new legs, but it was still difficult.

Kanaya went into their hive and found Vriska twitching in a random pattern. She went up and shook her, and she woke up with a jerk, hurting her bruised stomach in the process. Kanaya urged her back down as she groaned.

"What happened? You were shaking all over the place."

"It was a bad dream... A, what do you call it?"

"Nightmare. My gog Vriska, we'll need to introduce you to all this stuff and it will take forever."

"Yeah. I blocked the stuff out as a kid, but it's coming back to bite me. You can't hold emotions in forever."

"What was it about?"

"It was when I Tavros fell down the cliff. I watched myself laugh at his misfortune... It was terrible. Was I really that bad?"

"It doesn't matter what you did in the past. People can judge you for it, laugh at you for it, tease you for it. In the big picture, it doesn't matter. What matters is what you do now. Everyone in this world has the power to forgive, whether it takes a few seconds, weeks, months, or years. If you turn yourself around, the best people will respect you just as much as everyone else. The ones who don't respect who you are now because of it are not the true allies, the ones who do are."

Vriska looked at the roof and pondered the quote.

"I'll be taking my leave. I do hope you get better soon, Vriska."

"Yeah..."

* * *

 **Hopefully, from this point, I can make chapters longer and with more content in them. It's a gradual process and I'm really used to 1000 word chapters sharp, but I'm hoping to expand from that point.**

 **Also, the characters in this fanfiction are meant to be more vulnerable and kind than in canon Homestuck. This is because...**

 **-Everyone realizes they're screwed unless they work together**

 **-People are near death, or so they think, and they're coming up with regrets for their life**

 **-Same reason as before, and people don't want to die alone.**

 **Thanks for reading, and if you can, please drop a review! Constructive criticism is appreciated as long as it's respectful and not flaming. Remember, this is , not a professional book publishing site. However, it is important that content is accurate, so if I'm doing something wrong, please tell me.**

 **Also, I'm portraying Vriska in a new way. Thoughts?**


	6. A long-awaited apology

**In this world, Vriska never killed Aradia. I was getting a recap on what Vriska did and saw that, but realized it was impossible to incorporate because Aradia was already alive and had played a major part in the story.**

Everyone was gathered in front of Karkat, even Vriska, who was well enough to stand for a period of 30 minutes max.

"WELL GOOD EVENING EVERYONE. WE HAVE OFFICIALLY FINISHED OUR TEMPORARY HIVE. IT SHOULD WORK FOR A WHILE, BUT WE SHOULD PLAN ON EXPANDING IT IN THE FUTURE. IF WE WORK HARD ENOUGH, WE CAN EVENTUALLY ADD ANOTHER FLOOR AND MORE ROOMS. MEANWHILE, WE NEED TO WORK ON HUNTING. WE NEED A BACKUP FOOD SUPPLY IN CASE WE SOMEHOW FAIL TO GET FOOD AND FOR PELTS, WHICH CAN BE USED TO MAKE BLANKETS. UPON REACHING 10 PELTS, CONSIDERING THE BEAR PELT CAN BE USED FOR 2, WE CAN DISTRIBUTE THEM. WE NEED 5 MORE PELTS SINCE WE GOT A WOLF ON THE SECOND DAY AND TWO ON THE THIRD. EVERYONE ABLE TO SHOULD GO AND HUNT. THIS IS EVERYONE BUT TAVROS, TEREZI, AND VRISKA. HUNT THE WHOLE DAY AND COME BACK AT SUNSET. FEEL FREE TO DROP STUFF HERE IF IT'S TOO MUCH TO CARRY. AM I CLEAR?"

A hand shot up.

"Yes, Nepeta?"

"Can we hunt in groups? I want to go with Equihiss."

"I guess so. It might be more efficient to split up, but we only need 5 so I guess we can spare an animal or two for personal comfort and safety."

Nepeta nodded. Safety was a big point, she might've died if Kanaya wasn't there. Even then, it was probably more for having her moirail with her for personal comfort. However, when she looked over at Equius, he was talking to Aradia, completely oblivious to her presence. After everyone left, Equius left with Aradia, leaving Nepeta and Karkat.

"Well I guess it's you and me. You want to go together, or do you want to go solo?"

 _Oh my gog, he wants to go with me! It's probably because we're the last two, but what if he likes me? Nepeta, pull yourself together!_

"Sure." Was all she could manage.

The two then left, Nepeta facing the forest and blushing, hoping Karkat wouldn't notice.

* * *

Back at camp, Tavros and Terezi were talking in the slumber room of the structure, while Vriska was asleep, dreaming.

 _Terezi was asleep soundly in her recuperacoon. Vriska, however, was not. She was pulling out her master plan, the psychic double reach-around. She sat cross-legged in her room, eyes close and fingers on her temples. After undoing the cranial locks, she was in. She was able to easily control Tinkerbull, and since it could communicate with animals, it could communicate with Terezi's lusus too. Vriska had it coerce Terezi's lusus to lead her to sleepwalk. She got out of her recuperacoon and went straight through the door her lusus had opened. Terezi walked deeper into the forest, further and further from her hive. Her lusus lightly pointed her chin upwards, so her face was perfectly aligned with the sun._

 _Eventually, Terezi woke up, and was face-to-face with the Alternian sun._

 _'The brightness... AUGH! My eyes... My eyes!'_

 _Her eyes burned, until eventually they were no more. She reached her hands out in all directions, finding nothing except the stump of a tree. She sat on top of it, trying to get orientation of her area. Her Lusus came over and started to lead her home. If she had gotten Terezi into this mess, whether it was under her control or not, she would get Terezi out of it._

 _The following years, her Lusus taught her how to smell and taste colors. These made up for being blind quite successfully, and eventually she started to function like a normal troll. She could sense obstacles before they came, and find out who was who before they spoke. Being blind eventually was acceptable, but still was somewhat difficult._

* * *

Vriska woke up with the feeling of guilt overflowing her stomach. _Why did I do that? I had reasons, but I took them way too far._

She looked over at the two, who were telling stories and occasionally laughing. She looked back at the ceiling. _I could've been like that..._

"Terezi. Tavros."

The two looked over, Terezi neutral and Tavros looked a bit scared.

"What?" they said, simultaneously.

"I have to say that...I'm sorry."

Terezi cackled. "Good one, Vriska."

Tavros looked confused. "Vriska...Are you alright? Did you hit your head when you fell?"

Vriska shook her head. "This isn't a joke. I'm genuinely sorry for what I did."

Tavros smiled a bit. "Maybe this is a new sta-"

"Oh please no, Kanaya already went over that. _Save the wrigglers. Donate your time._ I'm willing to change, but I'm not doing...that."

"I didn't intend-"

Terezi cackled again. "Well it's good to see you've become a reasonable person. When this is all over, you want to reforge the Scourge Sisters?"

Vriska thought. _She forgave me that easily? I feel like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders..._ "Sounds great."

* * *

Everyone came back around late. Well, that's what they thought. Little did they know that Gamzee was still out hunting. Back at camp, there were 5 wolf pelts, 2 deer pelts (As Tavros explained they are), and a few rabbits to eat. They were going to be fine for a week or so food-wise.

However, that wasn't their total catch.

Gamzee walked in with a huge pile of animals in his hands. He laid them on the ground, making sure they stayed perfectly balanced.

3 bears.

4 wolves.

6 rabbits.

Everyone gazed at the highblood's catch. He casually strolled over and sat down against the wall of their 'hive'. After whistling a small tune, he looked up to see many pairs of eyes staring at him.

"What?"

* * *

Everyone worked in skinning the animals, until eventually they were all done. There were 4 bear pelts, and these were given to the most important people in the action of getting the pelts. Gamzee got one since he killed 3 of the 4, Karkat got one since he was team leader, Nepeta got one because she was the main hunter, and the other one stayed with Vriska because she was still sick and bruised. Everyone else got either a wolf pelt or a deer pelt.

That night, people had an abundance of meat, filling everyone's stomachs and making them very drowsy. They just skipped the fire, and everyone climbed into their respective sleeping positions and enjoyed the warmth of the pelt that had been given to them.

 **Sollux** was still up, texting _Feferi._

 **How's it going over there?**

 _Not that good. We're running out of food and water supplies and we'll need to go out soon._

 **Yikes. I hope everything turns out okay.**

 _Yeah..._

 _How is it where you are?_

 **It has been going really well.**

 **We found Vriska, and she's still alive.**

 _Nice!_

 _Too bad Eridan's gone though..._

 **Yeah.**

 **Even if he was a douche, he was still a troll.**

 **Anyway, we built this kind of log structure thing.**

 **A temporary hive, if you will.**

 _Cool._

 **Also, we found out Supor Slime is extremely flammable.**

 _Hey, that might come in handy._

 **We also went hunting for animal pelts to use as blankets.**

 _Interesting. Are they soft?_

 **Definitely.**

 _It was nice talking with you, but I have to go._

 _We're organizing a group to go out, and they want me to go because I'm one of the most athletic ones here._

 **Okay, good luck!**

 _Thanks, you too!_


	7. An impediment

**Yay! Thanks for sailor phoenix black for favoriting! 6 chapters in and I only have 2 follows and 2 favorites, but that's okay because I've never finished a story. -_-**

 **I hope to get to a point where I can stop and make a sequel, but I don't want to rush it.**

 **Well, without further ado, enjoy!**

* * *

That night everyone slept exceptionally due to the new blankets they had acquired. By the time everyone woke up, the sun was already high up in the sky. Breakfast was cooked after everyone was out, and the group was, yet again, about to hear what was going to happen today.

"GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! AFTER YESTERDAY'S SUCCESSFUL HUNTING SESSION, WE ARE LEFT WITH THE QUESTION, 'WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO TODAY?' AND WHILE THIS QUESTION HAS MANY POTENTIAL ANSWERS, I'M GOING TO JUST SAY IT: WE HAVE ALL WE NEED TO SURVIVE. CONSIDERING WE CAN HUNT FOR FOOD EVERY WEEK OR LESS, AND TAKE DAILY TRIPS DOWN TO THE LAKE, WE ARE IN A VERY STABLE POSITION. WHICH MEANS WE CAN START DOING MORE IMPRACTICAL THINGS."

Cheers erupted from the group. Even after being cast out on an alien planet, they had made it this far.

"TODAY, LET'S WORK ON A SECOND FLOOR FOR OUR HIVE. AFTERWARDS, WE CAN FURNISH IT, UPDATE IT, AND ANYTHING ELSE WE FEEL IS NECESSARY. ONCE WE ARE SURE WHATEVER IS AT OUR HOMETOWN IS GONE, WE CAN GO BACK AND HELP REBUILD, OR COMPLETELY BUILD THE TOWN FROM SCRATCH."

A boo was heard from the back. Vriska walked up to the front.

"I wanna fight 'em!"

Karkat sighed. "IF YOU'RE HONESTLY INTERESTED IN VENGEANCE, YOU CAN TRAP THEM DOWN AND RIP THEIR HEADS OFF AFTER. HOWEVER, WE ARE IN NO POSITION TO FIGHT. YOU AND ERIDAN'S SHIP G-"

Nepeta laughed.

"AS I WAS SAYING, YOU AND ERIDAN'S SHIP GOT NEARLY DESTROYED LAST TIME. HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR EXTREME BUTTON-MASHING, YOU WOULDN'T BE HERE."

Vriska sighed. She couldn't argue with that.

"EVERYONE, I THINK WE HAVE DISCUSSED ENOUGH. AFTER OUR TRIP TO THE LAKE FOR WATER SUPPLIES, I OFFICIALLY DISMISS YOU TO DO WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT. SOUND GOOD?"

More cheers.

"LET'S GO THEN!"

The group all walked to the lake, chatting happily along the way. When they reached it, they filled up their bottles and stayed for a while. The water was clear, but very brisk. A minor splash fight occurred, but was stopped by Karkat when he yelled at them for being imbeciles.

"Karkat!"

Karkat whipped his head to see Terezi by the shore.

"What is it?"

Terezi motioned for him to come over.

"You're extremely gullible."

Terezi took a hand a swiftly splashed him, leaving a trail of water all down his body.

Karkat stared at her with extreme intensity for a moment then he pushed her into the water. However, she was prepared. She grabbed onto his arms, bringing him into the water as well.

Nepeta looked at the pair as they looked into each other's eyes, water washing over them.

 _Please don't kiss... please..._

Luckily, Karkat pushed himself off her and started walking back to use one of Equius' towels.

Nepeta gave a sigh of relief as she followed him back to camp, since Equius was talking with Aradia again.

* * *

"So what are you planning on doing when we get back?" Nepeta asked.

"Well, I don't know, to be honest. I'm not really good at anything, so I guess I'll just sit around and relax."

"Come on Karkat, don't be so harsh on yourself. You led a bunch of arguing troll adolescents to survive on a foreign planet. Not many people can do that."

"I guess, but that's only because-"

"Seriously. Self-pity gets you nowhere. You are an amazing troll Karkat, and it's about time you acknowledge it."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better."

Karkat and Nepeta then took their first steps back to camp, while everyone else was still at the lake.

"I genuinely care about you Karkat, and your comments are complete bull."

The two sat down on one of the bear pelts, continuing to talk.

"You don't need to lie to make me feel better. I know I'm useless."

"I'm not lying Karkat. You're being completely ridiculous right now."

"How can I be sure? Words are one thing. How can you prove that you're being serious."

"By this."

Karkat was stunned when he felt soft lips on his, and a blush instantly rose on his face. Nepeta was skeptical of Karkat's feelings, but when she saw lust in his eyes, happiness exploded inside her. The kiss continued for a few more minutes until the two broke off for air.

Nepeta leaned up against him.

"Convinced yet, Karkitty?"

Karkat was still blushing, words struggling to get out.

"Y-yes..."

* * *

Soon after, everyone returned to camp and started doing their own thing. Tavros helped Equius make the second floor, considering his arm muscles were considerably stronger than anybody else's due to all the wheelchair wheeling.

"I have to say, Equius, uh, you did a really good job on these legs."

"Thank you very much, Tavros. It is just another one of my masterpieces."

The two built walls, and used some wood glue to throw together a ladder to access the top floor. The roof would have to wait until the next day.

* * *

The other trolls had organized themselves to work on another project- chairs. Sitting on the ground was annoying, so each troll had decided to make a chair to at least keep their rear ends clean. Most chairs were very simple- two boards with four legs. Terezi altered hers to be very comfortable, however it was not that aesthetically pleasing. That didn't really matter to her much, though. By the time it was dinner, the trolls had congregated near the fireplace, where the food was being cooked. After some time passed, the meat was distributed. During the eating, a cool chill passed by, making the trolls shudder.

Aradia looked up and noticed some clouds strolling in.

"Guys, I think a storm might be coming."

Everyone ran with their half-finished dinners and ran inside. There was one major issue, which Karkat acknowledged quite loudly.

"GOG DAMMIT GUYS, WE DIDN'T MAKE A DOOR."

* * *

 **Yay! First ship, put a check mark on there. I saw an opportunity, and I took it. Karkat x Nepeta is now official! ^-^**

 **I also have some other ships planned, but those will be incorporated later.**


	8. A congregation

**For who it make concern...**

 **Duct tape can be called Duct tape or Duck tape.**

 **Both are commonly used.**

 **I might accidentally use both.**

 **Hooray for sort of an intermission chapter. Plus some fluff. Everyone's happy.**

Tavros and Equius ran out of the hive, running to the nearest tree to knock it down. Equius smashed it into pieces, approximately the size of the door. The wind picked up fiercely as Tavros ran to the ship to pick up the roll of Duct tape, which the two rolled around the logs Equius chopped. They were presented with a very crappy-looking gray uneven board, but decided they didn't have much of a choice as the two ran back in. They duct-taped the door, leaving as little cracks as possible. However, some of the cold had already reached the structure, and everyone was under their blankets, chatting amongst themselves.

"We've finished the door." Equius stated.

"About time." Terezi said.

"It's uh... Not that good though." Tavros replied.

Karkat shrugged. "A door's a door, and it will keep the cold out."

Everyone retired to their beds, the hive somewhat filtering out the cold. However, some of it fell through. The snow and wind was swimming around outside, and all the trolls were thankful they had somewhere to stay.

While Sollux was on his phone, other people were talking. Two trolls, however, were doing something different. Karkat was curled around Nepeta, the two sharing their warmth on such a cold day. After a while, something in Karkat pushed him to stroke Nepeta's hair. He glided his hair through her long locks, feeling the soft texture. Karkat blushed profusely when Nepeta started purring, but he continued with it since it was making both of them happy. The two stayed, cuddling, easily combatting the absence of heat outside.

Meanwhile, a game of truth or dare was occurring with Sollux, Vriska, Aradia, Kanaya, Tavros, and Terezi. Equius was not interested in 'such foolish affairs', and Gamzee was just sitting on his bed, not responding to any outside forces, completely zoned out.

Terezi started, since she suggested the game. She cackled, willing to start the game off in a big way.

"Vriska, truth or dare?"

Vriska gave her a smug look.

"Of course it's dare."

Terezi looked around the room. Her eyes set upon Gamzee.

"I dare you to straddle the clown."

Vriska chuckled and got up, sauntering over to Gamzee. She got up right in front of him, stared into his unmoving eyes, and sat on his lap, facing him. She spread his arms around him, not showing even a moment of hesitation. After a few seconds, she got up, rejoining the tight circle in the middle.

"Sollux, truth or dare?"

"Truth," He said, still typing on his phone.

"Do you have a crush on Aradia?"

"I did, a few sweeps ago. I've grown out of it."

Sollux took a brief intermission to look at the circle.

"Kanaya, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

Sollux thought. _She's a rainbow drinker. Maybe I can take advantage of that._

"If you were to suck anyone's blood in here, who would you suck?"

Kanaya thought for a second. "Gamzee's, probably. Highbloods have a very divine blood taste, unlike any other. Eridan's personality ruins the session and I would get culled instantly if I ever drank Feferi's blood."

Sollux, content with her answer, looked back onto his phone.

Kanaya scanned her possible victims. "Tavros."

"Hm?"

"Truth or dare?"

He thought, considering the consequences of both. "Dare."

Kanaya then struggled to come up with an idea. Rumor had it that Tavros had a crush on Gamzee.

"I dare you to kiss Gamzee."

Tavros walked over to Gamzee, hesitant. He wasn't about to walk out of a dare. He got on his knees, slowly leaned forward, and pecked him on the cheek. He walked in the circle again, ready to dare someone. "Terezi, dare or dare?"

Everyone already knew that Vriska and Terezi would always choose dare. ALWAYS.

"Hmm... Let me think... Dare."

Everyone chuckled, and Tavros racked his mind.

"I dare you to lick everyone who is playing's face but mine. Make sure to get Gamzee too."

Terezi walked up to Vriska, giving her a long stroke of the tongue up the face. She wiped it off with her shirt, and Terezi went around the circle, everyone being embarrassed or disgusted.

Gamzee still didn't react.

"Aradia, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Do you have a crush on anyone in this room?"

"Yes."

And with that, nobody was broken, and the game continued on for quite some time. Eventually, Tavros chickened out of an especially sexual dare, leaving everyone to come up with a final dare.

"It's decided." Vriska said, staring at him intensely.

"Strip Gamzee, underwear and all."

Tavros shook his head. "No homo."

Everyone was shocked.

"So you...don't have a crush on Gamzee?"

"Nope."

"Oh. Well, the dare still stands."

"Oh god, this is going to be disgusting."

Tavros lifted up his shirt, tossing it off to the side. He laid Gamzee down on the ground, undoing the zipper and quickly pulling the pants off. All that remained was the underwear.

He grabbed the two sides of the underwear, looking away, then pulling them off and dropping it as soon as possible. He ran back into the circle, relieved that it was done.

* * *

Later, Equius looked out the hive to see it was no longer snowing, and safe to go out. Everyone went outside, walking through the inch-deep snow. Well, except for Karkat and Nepeta. However, Terezi was curious.

 _What did those two do the whole time?_

Terezi inched to the back of the hive, smelling the air. It didn't surprise her when she scented both the Leo and the Cancer.

"WHAT THE HELL TEREZI?"

"Oh, Karkles, I'm gonna tell everyone you're together."

"DON'T YOU DARE YOU BLIND IMBECILE!"

"Imbecile? Is that really how you should treat someone who can blackmail you at any time?"

"Well crap."

"Now, if you want this incident to be a secret, you will have to do whatever I say. If you refuse it goes out."

Karkat gulped. _What does she have in mind?_


	9. A gamble

**Thanks to sailor phoenix black and Parallel Parabox for reviewing! In honor of them, and reaching Chapter 9, an extra special chapter about...**

 **Feferi!**

 **We've only really heard about her from texts, but we haven't seen what has been happening. So let's go check that out!**

 **(Also, tell me what you think of the first-person. I kinda like it, and I think I'll try to use it when I can, but probably not in this fanfiction.)**

 **(Will either add more Feferi chapters in a row or go back to her later.)**

 **(Parenthesis are cool. xD)**

If you had to describe the whole system going on, you could use one word.

Meh.

It could be done better, but several people were arguing about how to run the place, and their compromises ended up being abstract and unorthodox. The food supplies, as expected, tasted terrible. There was a decent amount though, but the group needed to get some more soon.

Kurloz, the town's leader, wasn't that good at holding his own opinion. However, everyone had agreed that one thing needed to be done: they needed to sweep the area for supplies and enemies. After all, they could still be in the bunker when opposition had already gone.

So, Kurloz and his group of 'advisors', which was pretty much his friends, made a group on who to go. Kurloz, being the town's leader, couldn't go for obvious reasons. They wanted to choose people who were willing to fight. And so, much discussion occurred, and a group was formed to go on the mission.

Kurloz signed while his matesprit, Meulin, spoke out loud for him.

"Feferi Peixes."

I figured. I was the youngest one here, but I was enough sweeps so that I could fight.

"Rufioh Nitram, Mituna Captor, Meenah Peixes."

And my sister was going. She could be the most unbearable, annoying piece of crap sometimes.

"And finally, Dirk and Jake Strider."

Everyone who was called was standing up.

"Tomorrow, you will set out at the break of dawn. If there are ground troops, try to sneak past them. If you fail, engage and leave no witnesses. If you can, successfully, find out who they are, then we can plan accordingly. If there is no one there, then come back and tell us. Make sure to search first though, they may be in hiding."

5 nods in the crowd.

"Get some sleep and be ready."

However, _I_ couldn't really get some sleep, so _I_ figured _I_ might as well text **Sollux** to see how it's going over there.

* * *

 **How's it going over there?**

 _Not that good. We're running out of food and water supplies and we'll need to go out soon._

 **Yikes. I hope everything turns out okay.**

 _Yeah..._

 _How is it where you are?_

 **It has been going really well.**

 **We found Vriska, and she's still alive.**

 _Nice!_

 _Too bad Eridan's gone though..._

 **Yeah.**

 **Even if he was a douche, he was still a troll.**

 **Anyway, we built this kind of log structure thing.**

 **A temporary hive, if you will.**

 _Cool._

 **Also, we found out Supor Slime is extremely flammable.**

 _Hey, that might come in handy._

 **We also went hunting for animal pelts to use as blankets.**

 _Interesting. Are they soft?_

 **Definitely.**

 _I have to go tomorrow to the surface again._

 _Hopefully there isn't anyone still there._

 **Okay, good luck!**

 _Thanks, you too!_

* * *

After a while, I sat in my sleeping pad, looking up at the concrete roof. I couldn't sleep, and anxiety was flooding through me. _Will I make it? Will they make it? Are they still there?_ Questions zoomed through my head, hundreds at a time, until eventually my mind focused on one thing.

Sollux.

Anxiety turned to regret.

I admit it, I've had a crush on him for a few sweeps now. And that time where they left... I could've told him. I SHOULD'VE told him. But Eridan was there, and I was pretty sure he was flushed for me too, and that would've made things complicated.

Even then, that's a pretty flimsy excuse. I'll need to work on that.

My whole mental debate had kind of calmed me down, allowing me to close my eyes and rest. Eventually, I fell into a soothing state of sleep.

* * *

I woke up to a rustling of my hair. I looked up to see a tall troll with a mohawk and large horns.

"C'mon kiddo, we gotta go."

If I remembered correctly, his name was Rufioh Nitram. If his last name was Nitram, that meant he was related to Tavros.

Not likely, but possible.

I went to the front and geared up. They gave us each a pistol, since they didn't have the funding for anything else. I slung my trident on my back, keeping it in the strap for melee combat. _You never know._

Jake agreed to carry a backpack holding supplies, including some water bottles for us if we can't find anything.

"I go backpacking a lot. This is nothing," was his reasoning.

Either way, I'm glad I'm not carrying it.

After a brief pep talk, Horrus moved a bookshelf to reveal a tunnel, and although it was narrow, it was not so much so you had to walk sideways. Except Rufioh, because of his horns.

He muttered something under his breath about 'getting back at them'.

And with that, we went single file down the tunnel, quite possibly to our doom.

 **What do you guys think? More Feferi or more group?**

 **Well, whatever you choose, it won't come out for a week or so. I'll be gone at a week long camp with no internet. ;(**

 **After that, I'll try to crank out some extra chapters! Hooray!**

 **Anyway, have a good morning/afternoon/evening/night. Seeya!**


	10. A temptation

**ayyyyy! 10th chapter! Thanks to all my followers, favoriters, and reviewers! I hope you enjoy the 10th chapter!**

 **Hooray for unorthodox ships and fluff.**

After the storm, the first thing the group had to do was shovel the snow off the top floor and in front of their makeshift hive. While everyone shoved snow out of the way, Equius and Tavros worked on a new (actually functional) door, instead of a clump of wooden planks secured with rolls of duct tape. After a decent door was made, they attached it to the hive, using duck tape instead of actual hinges, which they did not have. Soon enough, they have an even-more functional door, one that would keep out the cold and retain the warmth.

After eating some sort of 2 o'clock meal, Terezi pulled Karkat and Nepeta aside.

"As I said yesterday, if you wish to keep your intimacy private..."

Both of the two blushed at that.

"You need to help me carry out this plan I have in mind. If it fails, I'll find something else for you to do."

They reluctantly nodded.

"Now, gather around and let me tell you... I feel black for Kanaya."

Nepeta gleamed, and Karkat looked deep in thought.

"Can't I just threaten you that I'll tell people that to keep an information stalemate?"

"I don't care if you tell people, Karkles. I'm not a nooksniffer like you are."

He chuckled. "Like you're one to talk."

Afterwards, Terezi told them her interesting plan, step by step.

* * *

Karkat had everyone gather around him so he could talk. "OKAY GUYS, WE NEED TO GO HUNTING AGAIN. IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN PAIR UP. I WISH YOU ALL LUCK!"

Everyone left, but Karkat ran up to Kanaya before she ran out. He whispered to her.

"Hey, I think Terezi wanted to talk to you about something. She's in the hive whenever you're available."

"Don't I have to go hunting though?"

"You can delay it. She said it's something important."

"Ah, okay. I'll make sure to out after."

"Fair enough."

Karkat walked over to where Nepeta was, and the two went out into the forest, holding hands and chatting happily. After killing a deer and two rabbits, the two sat down in a clearing beside a river. The sun filtered through the pines, creating defined rays of warmth and light. As a fish hopped out of the water, Karkat started to speak.

"I feel like I've missed out on so much, not being in any relationships. I was so caught up in leading the group that I never decided to give myself any free time. But now... Now we don't really need a leader. We're stuck here until we have notice the others have left. Although some of us might want to fight, we have to try to avoid that at all costs. We've already lost one, we don't want to lose any more..."

Nepeta nodded and scooted next to him, leaning in his shoulder. Karkat welcomed the warmth of his new girlfriend by slinging his arm around her. The two laid in the peaceful forest setting, taking in the scenery and each other. They probably could've stayed there forever, considering they didn't need to go back and bring in their haul. After two hours, they picked up their load and walked back to camp.

* * *

Terezi sighed. Everyone had already left camp, and anxiety was starting to fill her. _What if this doesn't work?_

She had confidence though. If she was correct, it her plan would pass with flying colors.

As soon as Kanaya opened the door, Terezi took her sharp fingernail and made a small cut in her throat. Being cautious she didn't hit a major vein or artery, she made sure blood slowly but surely cascade out. Kanaya perked her face up, smelling the air. As soon as she was feet from Terezi, she turned on the lantern. Kanaya froze as she saw Terezi on all fours, holding her wound with one of her hands.

"Oh my god Terezi..."

Terezi gave her a sly grin. "I know about you Kanaya. We all do. You're rainbow-drinker, and you can't resist the savory taste of my teal blood. Just face it-you want as much of that taste as you can acquire. And I'm giving you an opportunity.

Kanaya involuntarily took a step forward.

Terezi's grin widened. "You can get Gamzee, but there's no sweet, sweet reaction."

Kanaya's eyes widened.

"Eridan's too much of a douche, and you'd get culled if you drew from Feferi."

Kanaya took a few more steps toward her. "You sly little..."

"There's Vriska, who I can already tell is flushed for someone else. Equius wouldn't let you either. So guess who that leaves?"

Kanaya was right in front of Terezi.

"I... I can't move the other way. Damn it Terezi..."

"Me. The unique, willing, irresistible teal blood."

Kanaya was face-to-face with Terezi, who continued speaking.

"You're so close, why not try a taste? Actually, that isn't a question. You will try a taste. Your instincts will drive you to lick it all up, and suck it out of me. It's only a matter of time."

* * *

By the time everyone got back, they compared their catches and held a large feast for everyone. Terezi walked out of the hive to witness a gleaming campfire. She walked up to Karkat, who asked her a question.

"Did it work?"

"Hell yeah it did. I'm still lightheaded from the blood loss. She's out cold though, since she's so full."

"Didn't need to know that."

"Whatever, Karkles."

Afterwards, they all headed off to sleep, and lost consciousness until the next day.

* * *

 **I AM GOING TO MAKE AN ANNOTATION OF THE STORY THAT IS KANAYAxTEREZI. I'M NOT INCLUDING IT IN HERE BECAUSE IT IS A WEIRD SHIP, AND THE ANNOTATION WILL HAVE LOTS OF SMUT, AND I DON'T WANT TO CHANGE THE RATING. EXPECT A FEW MORE THINGS LIKE THESE IN THE FUTURE.**

 **Anyway, see ya when the next chapter comes out.**

 **Peace!**


	11. An encounter

**I think it's about time I kicked up some more action. Are you reggie kids?**

 **And I promise to introduce more ships in the future, because there's been a lot of KatNep. _Trust me._**

After hunting the previous day, Karkat dismissed everyone to do 'whatever the hell they wanted'. Essentially, that meant that Karkat was tired of keeping order and wanted to have some alone time with Nepeta, in a non-perverted way. That would come later, considering the author made it that before he died of writer's block.

Karkat took some cooked meat, some berries, and his water bottle and approached Nepeta.

"Want to have a picnic?"

Nepeta gleamed. "Sure. The place we found before?"

Karkat nodded. "C'mon, let's go."

The two stealthily left camp, making sure no one noticed to not arise suspicion. The pair casually strolled through the forest, enjoying the beautiful scenery and the occasional bird call. After a twenty minute walk, the two reached the spot. Nothing had changed from the scene before, and the view was still breathtaking. The two laid out a bear pelt and popped out the food, the two chatting happily as they faced the river, munching on their food. After all of it was gone, the two cuddled against a tree, watching the river flow and feeling each other's warmth. Eventually, the two broke off.

"What do you want to do now?" Karkat inquired.

Nepeta thought for a second. "I need to practice my hunting abilities. Let's play hide and seek."

Karkat rolled his eyes. "That's a wriggler's game. No way we're playing such a childish thing like that."

Nepeta used her secret weapon. She leaned on Karkat, making the saddest eyes she could muster.

Karkat felt the guilt swirl inside him. He could've sworn her eyes purged his soul, taking away his free will and replacing it with malleability. He couldn't control his own body as he caved in.

"Fine."

As soon as Nepeta turned, he ran parallel to the river, until he found a fallen tree. He carefully mounted it, climbing across without falling in and making his location obvious. After he reached the other side of the river, he evaded trees while running at a decent velocity. Finally, he came across a meadow, and he hid behind a cluster of trees. Just then, he heard her yell the famous phrase.

"Ready or not, here I come!"

Karkat controlled his breathing and stopped his movements, keeping a standing pose as straight as a pencil.

* * *

As soon as Nepeta shouted, she turned to the direction where she heard his footsteps originally. Sure enough, muddy footprints littered the ground in a straight line. Nepeta stalked, close to the ground. The footprints ended at an overturned log, which she pounced on and crawled across. The footprints resumed until she reached a meadow, in which she only noticed trampled grass. Soon, the footprints stopped, and she noticed Karkat behind a tree. She carefully tip-toed until he was straight in her view and she wiggled her tail, ready to pounce.

"Found you!"

She tacklepounced Karkat, who wore a face of absolute shock. After he realized it was her, he calmed down.

"Damn, you are good."

As soon as Karkat realized what he said, the two broke into profuse blushing.

"Um, not in that way. Well, in that way, but I didn't mean to..."

Nepeta's face turned even redder.

"I'm just making things even worse, aren't I?"

Nepeta gave a slight nod, and the two locked eye contact.

Karkat gave a slight cough. "Well, what happened before, I, uh, I want that to happen again."

Nepeta looked to the side. "Me too."

Karkat slowly leaned down on Nepeta, shortening the distance between them. The two hovered an inch between contact, ready to begin the kiss.

Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream permeated the area. The two stood up to see another troll staring back at them.

Except it wasn't a troll.

Although it had two legs like a troll would, its skin was white, it had no horns or fanged teeth, and its hair seemed decently-maintained. The figure had a rounded hat and a vest with a pocket knife protruding it. It had cargo pants with lots of pockets.

The scared creature whipped out some kind of contraption that the two instantly realized its identity.

It was a gun. Not quite as advanced as troll technology, but it was a gun. _And it could kill._

Karkat put an arm in front of Nepeta, who cowered behind him. Karkat could tell, after a few seconds, that the troll-like person was equally scared of them, the gun furiously shaking in his hands, and beads of sweat cascading down his face. Finally, the figure spoke.

"*$^ !&# $*#? *%#$ $ $ *%#?" It asked.

"I don't understand what you're saying!" Karkat yelled.

The person thought for a second, then beckoned for them to follow. They reluctantly did, figuring that if they didn't, they might get shot. After a minute or two of walking, the group reached what looked like a portable camp. There were 3 tents, one of them being marginally larger than the others. The creature opened the flaps of the larger one, yelling inside.

"$# %! %*## )$* * %*# !"

Suddenly, a similar figure emerged. This one was taller, with jet-black spiked hair and was in more casual wear.

"%&# %#('% $#*% *%#)$*..."

The second one ran inside, grabbing some sort of contraption. It looked like a robot that Equius might build.

The taller one spoke to the robot in their language.

"#) %*# *$# #%* $% *%?"

The robot whirred, spitting out a message.

"Do you understand me?"

Both of them nodded.

The first one talked the robot, repeating his original message. The robot told the trolls a message in their language.

"Who are you? What are you?"

Karkat walked up to the robot.

"We're trolls. We come from another planet. Our hometown was invaded. Where are we?"

The robot spat out the message to the other creatures, who replied.

"Welcome to Earth. We are humans. We are excited to meet you."

The first one moved forward.

"My name is Jake. The other is Dirk. I am astonished we have met another race with human-like intelligence. It's an honor to meet you."

Nepeta replied. "The honor's all ours. How do you know our language?"

Jake continued speaking.

"I was once in a tomb, and I noticed writing. After taking pictures of all the instances, I gave it to my husband, Dirk, to analyze. He handed it to a piece of artificial intelligence, who eventually deciphered this and it has indeed come in handy."

Nepeta opened her eyes in amazement. "There were trolls here before?"

Dirk stepped next to Jake. "Or someone who knows your language. What do you call it?"

Karkat answered briefly with, "Alternian."

The two nodded, the Jake human writing it down. "Fascinating."

Then, it was Dirk's turn to ask a question. "Are you two alone?"

Both shook their heads, but Karkat elaborated. "There are ten of us total. One got left behind and another passed away."

"My sincerest condolences for your lost partner."

Both of the trolls nodded solemnly. "He was an, excuse my language, dickwad, but he was still a troll amongst us, and deserves respect as any other troll would.

Dirk laughed at the usage of the word from an alien race, but his smile diminished when Jake gave him a scorn look.

"Here, there are 6 of us. There's our adopted son and daughter, Dave and Rose. Also, there are our cousins, Jade and John. They seem about your age, however troll aging works. Teenagers, in human years."

The two nodded. "Maybe we could all meet somewhere?" Karkat asked.

"We can have a huge campfire at our camp, and the night after, we can have one at yours. Does that seem fair?" Dirk asked.

All of them nodded.

"Awesome," Dirk finished.

Nepeta waved as the two went back to camp. Today was (probably) the first meeting between human and troll.


	12. A campfire

**Did you all like that twist? Quadrants are about to get a lot more interesting!**

 **(Thinking of putting another Feferi Chapter at #15. What do you guys think?)**

Karkat stood in front of his comrades, thinking of a way to get the word out in a way that would seem appealing and non-life threatening. Turns out, it was going to be a difficult task.

Everyone had gathered around, wondering why their 'leader' had called them at such a time. It was later in the day, and nothing important seemed to be happening.

Or so everyone thought.

Karkat cleared his throat, more to give him a second to calm down and formulate his speech rather than fix his perfectly fine voice.

"This is going to seem weird to all of you, but I have recently found out that we are not alone on this planet. There are other forms of intelligent life."

Several gasps at this, or scoffs at such an inconceivable idea.

"Upon a recent expedition, I ran into one of this creatures. They are bipedal, much like us, and call themselves 'humans'. Their technology is not as advanced as ours, at least in relativity of space exploration. One of the humans has created a device that can communicate with us, so while communication with us might be rusty, it is easily accomplishable. These figures are, for the most part, peaceful, but are frightened and excited at the thought of other intelligent life forms. It seems this planet, 'Earth', is their home planet. And these humans have invited us to their temporary base of operations, or 'camp.'"

The first voice was Nepeta's. "Sounds pawsome!"

 _All according to plan._ Karkat thought.

"Nepeta, I will not allow you to go. It is too dangerous."

"Come on Equius! I might never get a chance like this again!"

"What if they assault us?"

"If you come, you can break them with your STRENGTH!"

"Indeed, that is a valid plan of action. I guess I will go, for the sole purpose of protecting Nepeta."

Tavros raised his hand. "I'll go. These legs help me run faster than the average troll, so I can escape if necessary."

Afterwards, Sollux, Kanaya, and Aradia agreed to join them. Gamzee was spacing out, as usual, but would probably go if asked.

That left Terezi and Vriska. After whispering in the back, they presented an idea.

Vriska spoke first. "We'll go if you agree that, if scat hits the rotating gust device..."

Terezi finished. "We get to kill these 'humans' and ransack their camp."

Karkat decided it was fair enough, and allowed it. "Let's go then."

Everyone picked up their weapon, in case of emergency, and left past the creek, following Karkat. Soon enough, they reached the human camp, and there were logs already cut down for the trolls to sit on. Six humans already sat there, four of them staring with disbelief when they saw ten aliens waltz into their camp and cheerfully greet them, the robot changing their greetings to English. After the campfire was lit, all of them did introductions.

"My name is Karkat. I'm essentially the leader of this squad, group, whatever you call it."

"I'm Nepeta, and I like cats. Equius over there is my meowrail. He looks scary, but he's really nice.

Karkat butted in. "I'll explain what moiraillegiance is later."

"I'm Kanaya, and I enjoy reading books and designing anything fashion."

"I'm Terezi, and I'm blind. I love dragons."

"Tavros... Tavros is my name. My legs got injured a while ago but Equius made new ones. I like animals."

"I'm Vriska. I like spiders and am probably the best troll in the group."

After a minor argument ensued, the trolls continued with introductions.

"I'm Equius, and I am the STRONGEST one in the group. And horses are cool."

"My name is Aradia, and I'm an archaeologist. I love exploring tombs."

"I'm Sollux, I have a lisp, and I love computers."

And then there was Gamzee, staring lazily into nothingness. Karkat introduced him for everyone, since he probably wasn't going to snap out of his trance anytime soon.

Then, the humans decided to introduce themselves.

"I'm Dirk, I love anime, and I fight with a katana. I love making technology, hence the robot I made that's translating us."

"I'm Jake, and I'm an explorer. I found the tomb with Alternian writing in it and I've found countless other relics and treasures."

"My name's John, and I'm a nerd. Not much else to say about that. By the way, Nic Cage is the best.

"Dave's the name. Probably the best rapper you'll ever encounter. I'm just that good."

"You may call me Rose. I enjoy reading, wizards, and cats."

"Hi! I'm Jade. I'm a novice gardener and I play the flute. I'm also kind of a nerd too."

After the introductions, the group danced and sang, and the humans introduced trolls to S'mores. Gamzee doused his in supor slime, and said it tasted like 'Motherf***ing miracles.'

Afterwards, the trolls headed home, ready for the campfire at their camp tomorrow. They whispered amongst themselves, conversing about the aliens, who no longer seemed so aliens. They expressed who they were interested in, who seemed cool, and who was just overall lame. After much discussion, they reached camp, climbing into their beds and slowly falling asleep.

 **Btw, I got a review asking if there would be Human X Troll pairings, and yes, there will be. Mainly moirailship, but some matesprit couples too. Look forward to it!**


	13. An expedition

**Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I was finishing my other story, A New Perspective. Now, I can work on this one and potentially an old/new XD Gale of Darkness one. It's complicated. Not really, but this isn't the place to talk about it.**

 **Yay! A Feferi chapter!**

 **The Squad:**

 **Feferi**

 **Dirk**

 **Jake**

 **Rufioh**

 **Mituna**

 **Meenah**

After walking halfway across town, the group resurface right outside the walls. After walking out the unstable shed that acted as a decoy, the group walked through the walls, sticking in the shadows. After walking for a while, Feferi heard some...whirring? She held up the group and snuck forward. Hovering down the paths of the now-dead town was a drone, scanning the town for survivors. She took aim, launching her trident at the drone, which fully pierced it, and eventually made it explode after some minor crackling. She silently commanded the group back to the fallen drone, having everyone analyze. Mituna, knowing the most about robots and technology, looked at what remained of the robot.

"Government drone. V-2600-Z. Did you see what it was doing?"

Feferi replied with, "Scanning. I think it was looking for survivors."

Mituna swore to himself. "The Grand Highblood wants to cull us again."

"I know that most of our town is lower castes, but this still seems irrational. We need to get to the bottom of this. Should we go back or keep going?"

Rufioh stated his opinion first. "We're already this far. We might as well keep going."

Meenah scoffed. "I didn't want to be here anyway. I'll go back and tell them."

Feferi didn't really want her here, so she agreed. No one else objected, so she left and the others continued. After more searching, Mituna found and disabled a drone so he could study it later. After shoving it in his backpack, the group started walking.

"Can we go search our house for stuff?" Dirk asked, followed by Jake asking.

"Sure, but we're not waiting for you." Rufioh replied. The two split off from the group, leaving Mituna, Rufioh, and Feferi. As they neared the walls of the town, they found a disturbing sight. Meenah was on the ground, dead, with a charred hole in her chest. Suddenly, Mituna screamed. Rufioh turned around, chucking his lance at a drone behind them. Mituna was on his knees, his left arm completely dismembered.

"Sh*t." Rufioh cursed. Feferi and Rufioh helped Mituna walk to the shed, where they entered the tunnel and started making progress back. As they reached the end, they looked through the door window to see, well, nothing. The lights were out. Mituna pulled out a pair out his night vision 3D goggles, looking through the window. Inside were tons of dead bodies.

The drones had reached their base.

 **Yeh, short chapter. But impactful, am I right?**


	14. A plea for help

**Whew! Finally finished my other story, A New Perspective. I also plan to post another story soon, based on Pokemon, if you're interested in that sort of thing.**

The next day, Karkat woke everyone up promptly at sunrise, whether they liked it or not. They needed to prepare for the campfire tonight, and since they didn't have everything they needed, Karkat was sending people out to get it. Equius was sent out to get water, since he could carry the most. He sent Nepeta, Kanaya, Terezi, and Gamzee to hunt, since they were the most gifted in hand-to-hand combat. Everyone else (being Sollux, Tavros, Vriska, Aradia, and Karkat himself, were going to make a bridge to make travel between camps easier. They promptly left in their respective directions, preparing for the campfire.

Once they reached the river, the biggest group started chopping down a medium sized tree. As it fell, they chopped off the top and bottom to make it a flat, plank-like log. The group also fashioned some stakes from the parts that were chopped off, sticking them into the ground near the edge of the 'bridge'. They tied some twine to the stakes, making a place to grab as you walked over the log. After a few minor tests, they deemed the bridge as 'stable enough' and left to go back to camp.

At camp, the group started gathering wood for the campfire. They picked up dead grass, detached back, fallen branches, and anything else that could be potentially flammable. They put in on top of some leftover logs, and drizzled some supor slime on the top. Aradia, after using the rest of it up, tossed it behind her into the woods. By the time it was sunset, Equius and the hunters returned. Between all of them, there were four rabbits, two squirrels, and an elk. They took the meat of all of them and put them on the metal grate high above the logs. This fire was going to be massive, and they didn't want to burn their food because of it. Karkat and Nepeta left to grab the humans, while the others talked.

After they had been led over the bridge and into camp, they started the fire, which spiraled right before the grate. They had Nepeta, arguably the best storyteller of the group, tell the humans the story of how they were invaded, left one of them behind to escape, flew to Earth, crashed one of the ships, found Vriska in the lake, built their house, and eventually found the humans. Well, the humans found them. After Nepeta finished, Jake started telling everyone of his travels and adventures.

No one noticed when Sollux snuck out of the campfire and hid behind the cabin to check his texts.

 _Feferi: Sollux, this is urgent_

 **Sollux: What happened?**

 _Everyone... Everyone is dead..._

 **WHAT?**

 _A few of us went out the search and, when we got back, everyone was dead..._

 **My gog, I'm so sorry...**

 _There's nothing you could've done about it..._

 **I guess so...**

 _But at least we found out who it is._

 **Who is it?**

 _The Grand Highblood himself._

 **Why... How?**

 _There are a bunch of drones. He really wants us dead for some reason._

 **I'll try to convince the others to come back. Looks like you really need it.**

 _Yeah... Thanks a lot Sollux._

 **No problem. Also, there's something else I've been wanting to tell you for a long time.**

 _What is it?_

 **I'm flushed for you.**

There was a long pause with no responses. Sollux started sweating nervously as Feferi started typing, fear of what could happen. Had he jeopardized their friendship?

 _You don't know how long I've been dreaming for you to say that. I'm flushed for you too, Sollux. Not a day has gone by when I didn't think of you. I can't wait to see you when you get back._

 **Same here, love you.**

 _Love you too._

As Sollux shut his phone off, he sighed.

 _That could've been so much worse._

After he rejoined the campfire, it had practically ended. They passed out food, talking while the embers slowly died down. After the humans left, Sollux told the group.

"Feferi just told me that they found their base and killed everyone but the small squad of explorers. We need to go back and fight before it's too late."

Karkat stepped forward. "I feared this day would come. We need to go back... Get some rest everybody. We're leaving soon."

And with that, everyone went to bed.

Once everyone was asleep, a certain clown left the cabin silently, heading to get his normal douse of supor slime. On the way to the spaceship, he stepped on a glass object, which shattered and jabbed his foot. However, the pain was nullified since he was in a high. As he went down to see what the 'weird tickling' was, he smelled the pungent smell of supor slime.

 _They were out..._

 _The supor slime... Gone..._

Anger flared in his eyes, a feeling not encountered in a while.

WRATH.

He smiled. The first thing he smelled on the vial was Aradia, his first victim.

 _They ruined my supply of super slime, so I'll ruin them._

After using his chucklevoodoo magic to form his famous massive spiked club, he leapt into a tree, excitement brewing in him for the thought of killing once again.

 _Once she's alone, I'll strike. Anyone who interferes will be decimated as well._

 _This is going to be fun._


	15. A tragedy

**So guise, the story is entering its closing arc. I felt like the normal survival theme was getting kind of stale, so now it's time to bring some action back. Are you ready kids?**

 **(Aye aye, captain!)**

In the morning, the trolls got out of bed, preparing to take the trip back, when a question arose: How were they going to fit everyone in the ships? It wasn't safe to have anyone share a seat, or sit on anybody's lap. Sollux, while still typing on his phone, provided a potential solution.

"Didn't that ninja anime guy say that he was an engineer? Maybe he could help."

Karkat replied with, "Dirk. His name is Dirk. And yes, he probably could. Equius, can you go ask him? You could form a tag-team sort of thing and make a new ship, or update an old one. I really couldn't care less."

Equius left, following the path the groups had made from one camp to another. Karkat organized more hunting parties, taking him, Nepeta, and Kanaya to get some food to take on the trip. Apparently, if you used this mineral called 'salt', it would make the meat last longer, and the group intended to do that. After the group left, Vriska, Terezi, Tavros, and Aradia started chilling back at camp. After a bit of conversation, Aradia got up to get water.

As she neared the container, something dropped down from the tree, knocking her to the ground. Aradia screamed before exploding in a pool of red liquid. _Blood._

The three got up, readying their weapons. Upon closer inspection, they found out it was Gamzee. As he slowly turned his face to meet theirs, they could see the fury in Gamzee's eyes. The lust for death. Tavros stepped forward in an attempt to calm Gamzee down. "Gamzee. It's okay. Calm down."

Gamzee's eyes started slowly diluting to their normal state, but suddenly flashed back into rage mode. Gamzee lunged at Tavros, swinging his spiked club.

 _This is the end..._ Tavros thought, flinching for impact.

CLINK.

Tavros opened his eyes to see the back of Vriska, with one hand on the hilt of her cobalt blade and the other hand on the back of the edge. She pushed herself against the club, eventually making Gamzee stumble back. After shaking his head to shake off the impact, he glared at her, ready for the fight ahead.

As Vriska blocked another strike, Terezi leaped in and sliced Gamzee with her cane, making a large gash down the front of his chest. She leaped back, avoiding a strike she smelled coming. Gamzee roared in anger, swinging his club unpredictably. The two Scourge Sisters jumped back, while Gamzee flailed aimlessly, each swing more powerful than the next. Vriska and Terezi flanked him from behind, Gamzee nearly hammering them into oblivion. Gamzee was swinging his clubs in a full circle, making his defenses impossible to penetrate.

Or were they?

Vriska gave a smug smile, leaping up into the air, over Gamzee. She put her sword downwards, effectively cracking his skull. She turned in midair and sliced horizontally, cleanly taking his head off. As Vriska went for the landing, she stuck one of her feet out to roll, so she wouldn't get damaged from falling. However, the roll never happened.

CRACK!

Gamzee's last blow struck Vriska clean in the food, making her scream in agony and drop to the ground. Her ankle was shattered, enabling her only to use her voice to howl the pain away.

Terezi and Tavros ran up to her, carrying her to the Health Hammock, where it would not be her first time, but hopefully be her last. The two worked to bandage her foot, and her screaming was reduced to pained moans and grunts. Terezi picked up a pill, showing it to Tavros, practically asking for approval. Tavros nodded, and they gave it to her, washing it down with a glass of cool water. In a few seconds, her eyes shut, and all that came from her were quiet snores.

After the two inspected Aradia, they found out she had no pulse and had not moved, and they realized she was dead. Gamzee, without a head, shared the same ailment. The two sighed. Their group had been reduced from 12 to 8, and potentially 7 if Vriska's foot didn't heal. The two dug a grave for both of them, and as they lowered Gamzee in, Tavros spoke.

"All I can say is... I'm disappointed in you. After being spared, I thought you could change, but I guess not..."

Tavros then shoveled dirt onto is face, recognized as an official goodbye. As soon as he was completely covered up, a few tears fell down Tavros' face. Terezi walked up to him, patting him on the back. Any sign of support was a rare one from the blind teal-blooded troll, and Tavros appreciated it greatly. After a few minutes, Terezi broke off to go tend to Vriska, and Tavros wiped his tears with his shirt sleeve. After glancing back at the hive, he walked down to the river, sitting on a log and looking at the water. He sat there for hours, somehow finding entertainment in the flowing waters and what resided inside it. Along with the occasional fish, there were also 'water-skippers' and tadpoles. Eventually, he was interrupted by Equius.

"Lowblood? Why are you out here?"

Tavros sniffled. "Gamzee. Aradia. Dead."

"What? Aradia's dead?"

Tavros sighed. "Yep. Gamzee got her."

Equius ran back to camp, not believing a word of what the long-horned troll had just said. But sure enough, two graves were dug. He found Aradia's and uncovered her, getting one last look at her. Tears fell down his cheek and onto her face as Equius mourned the death of her.

"I...I always loved you Aradia. It's... a shame I never got to tell you..."

Equius turned when a stick started hovering above the ground. He was scared at first, but got interested once it hit the dirt and started writing a message.

/\ /\ _ | |

/ \/ \ _ | |

_ | |

Equius read it out to be 'Me II', or 'Me 2'. Tears fell down Equius' face, covering her body in a deluge of tears. Eventually, he got up, planted a kiss on her cheek, then covered her corpse. Tavros slung his arm around Equius.

"You're not the only one. Gamzee was my moirail, and he was a great friend, but he became a slave to supor, and he couldn't function normally after. It's a shame, really."

Equius nodded, only allowing someone so low on the hemospectrum to give him a gift of gratitude just this once. After Tavros broke off, he left the executioner to mourn. But question arose...

"How are we gonna tell Karkat?"


	16. A new leg

Once Karkat walked back into camp with Nepeta he saw a crying Equius, a Tavros sitting by the ashes of the campfire, slouched over, and Vriska in the Health Hammock.

"MY GOD, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? I LEAVE FOR THE DAY AND EVERYTHING GETS SCREWED UP BECAUSE YOU GUYS APPARENTLY AREN'T RESPONSIBLE ENOUGH TO DO YOUR OWN WORK INDEPENDENTLY FOR ONE DAY? WHAT ARE YOU ALL, F*CKING WRIGGLERS? WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE TEENAGERS NOW, YOUNG ADULTS FOR SOME OF US, AND YET, OUT OF THE SIMPLEST OF TASKS OF 'CHILLING OUT IN CAMP FOR THE DAY'. YOU DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO DO ANY WORK! FOR GOD DAMN SAKE, HOW DID YOU MESS UP?"

Tavros got up from his seat near the campfire, and walked up to the salty Karkat.

"I thought he could contain himself, even change, but I guess not..."

"What? Do you mean..."

"Gamzee... He... assaulted us."

"How many did he kill? Oh gog..." Karkat fretted, walking towards the cabin.

"Only one, Aradia. The Scourge Sisters got into action and Vriska barely saved me..."

 _Good to know she's done something in return to the poor guy._ Karkat thought.

 _Also makes sense that Equius is in a sniveling mess. That was his one weakness, to be honest._

Karkat sighed, walking into the cabin, seeing Terezi wrap Vriska's ankle in a cast.

"We'll wait for Kanaya to get back to evaluate it. Worse comes to worse, we can amputate it and get you a robotic leg. Once Equius recollects himself, we can ask him."

Vriska nodded, laying back in the hammock, a slight grimace on her face.

Karkat walked outside the cabin to see Nepeta comforting Equius, and Karkat noticed that he looked a lot better than before, so he left Nepeta to do his work, after getting a drink of water, Kanaya strolled into camp. Karkat pointed to the cabin, not wanting to talk at the moment. Kanaya picked up the pace a bit as she speed-walked to the cabin, where Karkat noticed her obvious facial expressions as she heard the story, and Kanaya instantly started tending to her leg. As Karkat finished his cup of water, Kanaya approached him.

"The bone is shattered, and the only way she'll be able to fight is if she gets it amputated and replaced. Considering she's an excellent fighter, I would do it."

Karkat stared the wall, obviously thinking hard.

"I guess the decision is obvious then. Considering we have the resources, we'll make her a robotic leg. She already has an arm, so she'll spend less time getting used to it."

Kanaya nodded. _We probably need Vriska for the fight. She'd be a valuable asset and, without her, we might experience failure. She needs to get better._

Afterwards, Karkat attempted to talk to a still-crushed Equius, who couldn't be rationed with in his current state. That left him with the annoying anime Japanese katana guy, Dirk.

 _It's worth a shot._

Karkat went over to the human camp, finding Jake lounging out in the shade by their campfire.

"Hey Jake, is Dirk here?"

"In the white tent."

"Thank you."

Karkat followed his directions, finding himself near the picnic table under the canopy. Inside was Dirk, welding something.

"Hey Dirk, I have a favor to ask of you. One of our members is getting their ankle amputated, and we were wondering if you could build a robotic leg of some sorts."

Dirk chuckled. "Robotic leg? Isn't that a bit excessive? I can make something much easier and cheaper, and give her more time to adjust."

"Whatever works. I'm not an engineer, so don't expect any helpful feedback from me."

"Noted." He said, casting his current project aside to work on the new one.

* * *

Karkat walked back to camp, explaining to Vriska that Dirk was on it. As much as she wanted to keep her original leg, she realized the gravity of each member of them team and reluctantly agreed. Kanaya prepared her medical tools for some surgery, waiting for the 'leg' to arrive. She also applied some pain-killing herbs and some herbs to make Vriska drowsy, in hopes they could do the operation when she was asleep. As Vriska started snoring, Dirk arrived in their camp with some sort of curved piece of metal attached to a joint to connect to her leg.

"I made some holes so you can stitch it in," Dirk told Kanaya, "but you might want to get some auxilary support so it doesn't fall off in the heat of battle."

Just then, Tavros walked in with a roll of duct tape. Tavros held it out, and Kanaya looked at it for a few seconds before taking it and shrugging. Then, she look a long, serrated blade and started bringing it down her leg through her skin and muscles. Once she reached the bone, Kanaya got a hatchet, cracking the bone evenly with enough force to go all the way through, but not that far into the other side of her leg. She continued again on the other side with the serrated knife, eventually making it all the way through. Tavros had stayed in the room, grimacing when Kanaya tossed Vriska's leg off to the side. After taking some quick measurements, she decided she had cut the right area and started attaching the leg.

A few minutes later, the leg was attached, and looked a lot different from her actual leg. It was much slimmer, but the way Dirk built it made it look stable and durable. After winding some duct tape around a few times, Kanaya stood back, admiring her work. Tavros took the leg from the ground, and buried it near Gamzee and Aradia. He couldn't stand to look at such a vulgar sight any longer.


	17. A lightheadedness

**Epic training montage? Yes!**

 **Well it's short and not that major, but oh well. Hopefully it's good enough for you guys.**

 **I'm going to focus this story so I can end it, since I'm taking over someone else's fanfiction because their parents are banning them from computer until next June, and they don't want to leave their followers hanging.**

 **Anyway, enjoy!**

Vriska woke up, feeling exhausted and groggy. A dull pain echoed through her as she shifted in the hammock and looked outside the cabin door. It was almost sunset, and the group was preparing for a campfire. A figure nearby noticed her shifting and shouted.

"She's awake!"

Vriska turned to see it was Kanaya. A lightheaded feeling resonated as she talked to her.

"Hey friend."

"Uh, hi, Vriska?"

"How's it going, K-Dog?" Vriska giggled.

"Yep, she's high on herbs."

Several people walked into the room, specifically the ones who cared. Basically, Equius, Tavros, Karkat, and Nepeta. Equius was the first to speak. A few tears welled in his eyes when he spoke.

"I'm not sure how much you'll understand this in your current... state, but I'd like to thank you for avenging Aradia. I'm just... glad we didn't lose more to the psychopath clown..."

Vriska replied with something you'd expect in her situation.

"Yay, I did something good!"

Afterwards, Equius went outside the cabin, running into the trees, ready for a deluge of tears. Karkat went next.

"Thanks for the sacrifice of your leg to kill Gamzee. Who knows what he would've done if you wouldn't have stopped him?"

Vriska nodded. "Clowns are bad."

"Debatable, but whatever. You're alive, so that's good enough."

Nepeta then went up to Vriska.

"Thank you, Purriska, fur saving us! The name of Purriska will go down in hisstory for being a legendary clown slayer!"

Vriska smiled. "Kitty!"

Nepeta waved to her as if she were a child (which she practically was at this point) and pounced on some imaginary prey outside the cabin. Kanaya left to go fetch more supplies, leaving Tavros and Vriska.

"Hey Vriska, I know our past was a bit... rough, but I'd like to th-"

"Tavros, come closer."

"Uhhh, okay?"

Vriska chuckled as Tavros came closer. She leaned forward, pecking him on the lips. Tavros stumbled back, blushing furiously.

"Heehee... That felt nice."

Tavros stuttered as he talked, his cheeks still a blooming shade of crimson.

"Uh, Vriska, uh, are you, uh, okay?"

Vriska chuckled again, a light, carefree laugh. "Never been better."

Tavros walked out of the room, mumbling the words, "Not a chance."

That night, the campfire was decent, as usual. Vriska had contributed a little, still not in her correct state of mind but a lot more stable. After they went to bed, Vriska went back to her bed, but made the split-second decision she didn't like it. She snuck over the sleeping bodies, walking over a few beds and laying down in Tavros'. She gave his hair a few strokes before leaning into him and wrapping her arms around his body. She whispered his name and slowly drifted into sleep.

* * *

In the morning, the first one to wake up was Tavros. As he woke up, he felt a warmth coming from behind him, almost a comforting one. He turned around to see the source and nearly screamed when he found the victim.

 _Vriska... Vriska slept with me? I didn't notice? She was probably still on a high then..._

Tavros' sudden movement had woken Vriska up, who in turn shared practically shared the reaction. They stared at each other in disbelief, both blushing atrociously. After a few seconds, Vriska recollected herself.

"The most concerning thing is the fact that I was on you... What the HELL happened?"

"I don't know, you must've done it while I was asleep."

"Are you sure you don't know how we slept together, Toreadork?"

"You were high on herbs the day before..."

"Oh god, what did I do?"

"Well you pecked me on the lips and said you liked it."

"Could she have just left me without painkillers? Now everyone is gonna know I was a completely stoned idiot like Gamzee."

"It's not like you could control anything."

Vriska sighed. "I guess you're right... The feelings were genuine..."

Tavros blushed. "So you're saying you love me?"

"Essentially, yes. We've been speaking Alternian for our whole lives and you couldn't even figure that out?"

"Sorry, I'm not good with...people stuff."

Vriska nodded, staring at the wall.

"Even though you made me paralyzed from the waist do-"

"I apologized, jeez!"

"As I was saying, even though you made me paralyz-"

"I said sorry, what more do I need to say?"

"I'm not trying to pick on you. Despite what you've done, I've always felt flushed for you. I don't know why, but reality was cruel that way."

"Well, we are both half-robot."

Tavros looked at Vriska's leg. It didn't look like his. It looked sleeker, shinier, and more flexible. His were more sturdy. Her arm, though, was obviously made by the same person.

"Who would've guessed? I wonder how people will react when they find out."

Vriska looked at him and nodded.

"Yeah..."

* * *

Later that day, the group decided to take a few days for training before blasting off into the cosmos.

-Equius practiced his STRENGTH, punching down trees with his bare hands.

-Nepeta slashed and rolled against an invisible enemy.

-Karkat sliced with his scythes, chopping through numerous bushes.

-Tavros sprinted from one side of the camp to another, occasionally thrusting his lance forward and twisting it for maximum impact.

-Bush did 9/11

-Kanaya revved her chainsaw, slicing the trees cleanly in half that Equius dropped, lessening the debris.

-Terezi attacked invisible foes with her cane, ones that would do much more damage to actual enemies.

-Vriska rolled her dice, practicing each effect to the best of her ability.

-Sollux used his psiionics to dig a hole, afraid that if he hit any other target, it may burst into flames and blow up their home.

Were they ready? Probably not. Did they have a choice? Probably not.

They would sure as hell try anyway.


	18. A return

**Are you ready kids?**

 **Aye aye, captain!**

 **Let's go m8s...**

It was time. After spending over a month on this foreign planet, they were ready to finally return to their homeland. They gathered around the two remaining ships. Equius, Nepeta, Karkat, Tavros, Vriska, Sollux, Kanaya, and Terezi stood in a cluster, gazing at their steeds. Footsteps inspired the group to turn around. Their eyes met with Dirk and Jake's. The two had rushed over. Jake spoke first.

"Hello mates! Dirk and I were going to inquire if you had any extra spots in your spaceships. We're willing to give up our lives here to hopefully visit your planet, and perhaps learn more about your race."

Equius replied quickly. "We got one spot. Only one of you can go..."

"No, both of them can go." Karkat said, stepping forward.

Terezi chuckled. "What're we gonna do? Strap one of them to the mast?"

Karkat shook his head, looking solemn. "I'll stay here."

A simultaneous "WHAT?" erupted.

"But Karkitty! Why are you staying?" Nepeta queried.

"I'm gonna be honest with you guys. I can't fight. All I can do is flail a scythe. These guys can fight, and they have a better incentive."

Nepeta walked up to Karkat, holding hands with him. "I'm staying too. I can't just leave my matesprit here."

She gasped as she realized she was trying to keep it a secret. Oh well, the cat was out of the bag now. ;)

As much as the group wanted Karkat to stay, he did have a fair point.

"I never even imagined what life would be on another planet." Karkat started. "And now I'm given an opportunity? I don't know if I'll make it, or how, if I'm lucky; but as long as I'm with Nepeta, I think we'll be okay."

Nepeta blushed, smiling at the comment. Several 'awws' were heard throughout the other 6 trolls and the humans.

Jake nodded. "Then it's settled. I'm sure the others will treat you well. Dave got his Driver's License, right?"

"Yep, and I'm pretty sure Rose has hers too." Dirk replied.

Dirk and Jake, along with the 6 returning trolls, got settled into the ship. Nepeta and Karkat backed up, making sure the blazing inferno wouldn't incinerate them. As the ship started up, the nearby ground rumbled. Soon enough, the ships were airborne, penetrating the atmosphere. The ships left two overlapping rings of fire, one of which leapt onto the cabin. Instead of stopping the fire, or salvaging the insides, Karkat saluted the smoldering mess, thanking it for its purpose of sheltering the group for several moons. As the cabin was reduced to rubble, Nepeta joined the salute, showing respect to their remains of their temporary hive. As the embers died down, the two buried the ashes with some leftover tools, hoping the ashes would one day fertilize a plant, continuing the helpful cycle of organic matter.

By the time the two looked up, the ships were nothing but specks in the sky. Campers, hikers, and the like would mistake them for airplanes, resuming their normal day.

The two walked away, unsure of what awaited them, knowing it would be excited either way. Anxiety resided in their stomachs, leaving Karkat with one question.

 _Did I make the right choice?_

* * *

Dirk and Jake clung to each other as the ships bolted through the cosmos, the automatic UPS (Universal Positioning System) rerouting them every few seconds to receive the ideal trajectory for the landing sequence. As the group looked in through the window, a dark planet appeared in the distance. _Alternia. We're finally home._ Parachutes launched out of the back of the ships, jerking them suddenly and gradually slowing their momentum afterwards. The gravity pulled the ships into an orbit, and after circling the planet, they touched down right outside of their old village. However, the place was now abandoned, many of the buildings reduced to piles of rubble.

The groups stepped out, hesitantly landing on the Alternian soil. Considering they weren't dead, it was probably safe enough for everyone to get out of the ships. As they prepared to enter the town walls, they heard footsteps. Everyone being extremely cautious, jerked around, seeing three figures in the dark. Everyone leaned into a fighting stance, waiting for the figures to make their first move. It was not a strike, a shot, or any offensive action; it was a wave.

Equius shined a flashlight, seeing a Feferi with a massive smile on. The trolls went up to her, taking turns hugging, high fiving, or shaking hands with the various trolls. Sollux went up, kissing her on the lips. Feferi blushed, deepening into the kiss and enjoying Sollux's touch. In a few seconds, they broke off. Their love would have to wait until they were in a safe position.

"So, give us the lowdown." Sollux stated.

Feferi told them of the base, and how the drones overran it while they were out on an 'errand'. Mituna chimed in later, saying the drones were from the government. Feferi acknowledged the information, finishing off with the fact that Dirk and Jake left to get stuff from their house, and that they haven't returned.

Rufioh stepped up, ready to give his two cents. "We need to retake the base. It's the safest place without venturing out far, but who knows what the Highblood has against us. He may hunt us down, or other villages might be like ours. Mituna, how long until those things run out of battery?"

"Two more weeks, about. They'll probably leave to go back to the king once they get around 10%, so we have 12 days to stall it out."

Rufioh chuckled. "I know just how to clear out that bunker."

Everyone turned their eyes to him, awaiting a response.

"Explosives."

 **Ahallu akbar! Sorry, my inner meme escaped. Anyone excited for some battling and some Michael Bay-inspired special effects?**


	19. A repairation (and a fake word, I think)

**Sorry if my uploads are sporadic, I don't really have a set schedule.**

 **Anyway, the story is ending soon. Although I feel like I could potentially build on the story, I only got 5 followers compared to double that on my other Homestuck story, so I don't feel as if it's worth updating much more. If I get a considerable amount of followers in the ending chapters (whether they're within the uploading day or just in general) I'll make a sequel or build onto this story itself. Probably the former though.**

 **If you really want to support the story, tell your friends! Although I don't want to ask too much for popularity, it's logical enough to end something if it doesn't have much purpose.**

 **The author note is ogre though, here's the actual story!**

Rufioh took his lance and a fallen drone, a determined look on his face. The group went down the evacuation tunnel, watching eagerly as Rufioh doused the drone in alcohol, from a bottle he smuggled on the journey. Normally, people would complain, but they were thankful they had such a weapon at their disposal at this point in time. Rufioh quickly slung open the door, sliding the drone into the middle of the room. After carefully locking on, he launched the lance, shutting the door before the objects made contact. The lance dug into the drone. The group waited for a fiery explosion of inferno.

But it never came.

All the drones in the underground base went up, scanning and observing the object they had just been acquainted with. A single spark fell from the drone.

And that was all it took.

The drone exploded, taking out all the other drones. The shattered parts flew all over the room, still ignited and burning. The group came in the bunker, flipping the light switch, which was probably off when the now-dead group realized drones were near.

The group rushed in, extinguishing the fires as soon as possible. One of the flames leapt onto a wooden cabinet, and it took some effort to put it out without using their limited water stores. Although they had a barrel from Earth, it was still a limited supply.

The 9 trolls and humans set up the room, moving chairs and tables into their proper areas, along with crates into neat stacks. Some of the food had been infested with dirt, and now smelled rotten. As Vriska picked up a piece, she nearly dropped it after seeing some Alternian maggots on the bottom. Alternian maggots were larger, had a greenish hue, and sharper teeth with a pair of menacing eyes. Like trolls, they had survived the harsher conditions of the planet to thrive. Many of the other animals had adapted just like this one.

After the maggots and spoiled food had been disposed of, the group sprayed the room with some air freshener, and the place returned to a decent enough place to stay for a few weeks. The last objective was to cover the hole the drones had breached in their assault on the fugitives. After finding some rusty garden tools in an indoor shed, they salvaged a shovel, rake, and a few trowels. Using the shovel, raking the ground into place, and slowly troweling scoops of dirt, they eventually covered the hole in the corner that the drones had been programmed to dig.

 _Does the Highblood really want us dead that much?_ Feferi thought. _Something seems suspicious._

After everyone finished their respective jobs, they gazed at the bunker that they had just fixed up. Compared to the previous state, it was massively better. After spending a few minutes admiring their work, everyone plopped down on a seat, bed, or table depending on their physical state. Rufioh literally slept on a table while Sollux talked with Feferi, Mituna leaned against a wall while emulating Tetris on his phone, Vriska started arguing with Terezi, Tavros was comforting Equius, who was still sad because of Aradia's death. Kanaya sat in a chair, staring at the wall, and the two humans conversed about their opinion on the foreign world. Not much changed for the next thirty minutes, except for the fact that people slowly crept off to bed. Eventually, the light was turned off by Sollux, who was the last one to bed. The common room was then empty, the whole bunker dark.

Karkat and Nepeta walked into the human camp, a feeling of deja vu overwhelming them. As soon as they walked in, they were assaulted with the simple question of...

"Where are Jake and my bro?"

From the human known as Dave.

Karkat sighed, knowing he would have to break the news.

"They left to go to Alternia. In exchange, we agreed to stay with you guys, if that's okay. If you want to live a normal life, we can probably find a way to manage."

Dave opened his mouth to reply when Jade came up, answering for her.

"We can't just let you stay alone. We'll help you, right Dave?"

Dave opened his mouth to reply again when John came up, agreeing with her. "I'm sure you guys can be actors or something. Maybe we could hook you up with Nic Cage, and-"

Dave sighed. "I guess so. But we get part of their money."

John snickered, and Dave cracked a smile. Afterwards, he voiced more of his opinion.

"Although I'm disappointed my bro's up in some alien planet now, it was about time we...moved away from them. We were getting to that age where we had to start managing ourselves."

Rose walked up, nodding. "Fair point. What do you say about packing up camp and taking these guys to our house?"

No objections were heard, so the group started packing up.


	20. An end

**So guys, this is going to be the last chapter. I might make a spinoff story or a potential sequel, but it won't be for a while.**

Two weeks had passed. Two weeks of well, boredom. Anyone who wasn't in a relationship didn't have much to do. Sollux and Feferi made some...advances, along with Vriska and Tavros. Although, it was more Vriska dragging Tavros into a room and stripping him, he did join in the action after a bit. Tavros then continually stated it was worth it afterwards, which no one would've expected before Vriska was high on medicine. Lots of weird things had happened.

As the group resurfaced, they found the drones gone and the village in ruins. The group was shocked to find a nearly-dead Dirk and Jake, one of which was wounded on the leg and the other in the chest. Mituna made an inference that Earth and Alternia and all other troll planets contained some kind of counterpart, considering how uncanny their resemblance was.

The next few years were spent rebuilding the town, its resources, and the population. They salvaged what they could from houses, ignoring the guilt because they knew it would be of no use to anyone or anything else. They remade the town hall, creating a large hive for everyone to shelter in. Feferi and Sollux had a child along with Tavros and Vriska, who would later grow to become matesprites and have children themselves. Later on, the two original couples would have more children as well, and as other trolls moved into the area their village became more lively and less miserable and drab.

As for Earth, Karkat and Nepeta eased into society, acting as cosplayers for an unknown sci-fi movie. They would grow to be actors, creating their own movie and making enough money to happily live out their whole life, and have a child as well.

Their stories, though they were long and had their pops and drops, shall probably not be detailed.

Although, the trolls on Alternia thrived, with a tinge of vengeance in their hearts that may or may not ever escape.

 **Thank you all for reading!**

 **~OverlordMiles**


End file.
